


Regency

by fireroastedjules



Series: The Last Crouch [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:15:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 55,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27631256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireroastedjules/pseuds/fireroastedjules
Summary: Corinna Crouch has a lot on her plate as she goes into her fifth year at Hogwarts. She has to deal with the fallout from last year, handle being a double agent against the Ministry who was invading her once-beloved school, and navigate the new family she never knew she had. Follows series with deviations from canon.
Series: The Last Crouch [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2003140
Kudos: 3





	1. In Which They Have an Unwelcome Back to Hogwarts

The summer after her horrid fourth year at Hogwarts was punctuated by monotony. It was the same day in and day out. Corinna woke up around eight in the morning where she would make herself a meager breakfast of tea and porridge while she read from the garbage that was the Daily Prophet. She would spend the morning out in the garden doing her summer assignments, which seemed to have doubled from last summer as she was entering the year she would have to take her O.W.L.s. After a lunch of either a tasteless sandwich or tinned soup, she would go out to explore Muggle London.

With You-Know-Who back in power, she supposed she needed to take caution. But it seemed You-Know-Who was taken advantage of the Ministry's inaction to stay under the radar. Besides, she always had her wand on her, but hidden away so the muggles wouldn't see. She would run to the market to pick up seasonal fruits and vegetables, visit a bookstore when she found solace in mindless Muggle novels. She found it almost laughable when she read novels where the only conflict came from something as flighty as romance. It was a well-needed reprieve from the chaos and confusion that was her life.

She would get back sometime in the evening where she would indulge in a butterbeer and make dinner. She found a Muggle cookbook and opted to try various dishes from that as no one had ever bothered to teach her how to cook since they had a house elf. She would cap off the night back in the garden where she would read until she could no longer keep her eyes open. She liked reading among the stars, even if they were dim in London whereas they shown brilliantly over Hogwarts.

On Sundays, instead of exploring, she would sit outside and pen a letter to her friend, Terry. He was certainly insistant on her keeping this part of the bargain, as he had threatened to tell McGonagall when she did not send him a letter the first week she had been back from school. From then, she always wrote a letter to Terry and sent it via her father's owl that she inherited. The problem was, she had a hard time figuring out what to write. There were only so many ways she could write how she was doing (fine) and what she was doing (virtually nothing worth writing about).

Whenever she ran out of things to write about, she turned to complaining about what the Daily Prophet was writing about when it came to Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, particularly when Harry was arrested for using magic outside of school when it was illegal for those underage to do so. He wouldn't use the Patronus charm unless he was defending himself against dementors, she wrote in her letter. Terry's reply included questioning as to why there were dementors in the middle of Surrey, which miffed Corinna, but she had to succeed the point. She did not have anyone else to complain to, unless one counted the owl who spent most of its time flying around outside except for when Corinna called him back to deliver the one letter she sent out. Corinna, personally, did not.

At the beginning of the summer, having a routine like this was neigh impossible. All she wanted to do was lay in her bed all day and break down. It was Terry's letter reminding her of the promise that brought her out of it, and the routine kept her sane. The repetition may have been boring, but it was better than wallowing in self-pity.

She would not allow herself to succumb to the fact that she was the product of two of You-Know-Who's most loyal servants.

Some days were easier than others. She can go about her routine and let the numbness permeate her being. Others was a struggle just to get out of bed as all she wanted to do was cry and scream and be angry.

Once August had reared its head with even more intense heat and the threat that was September first loomed ever closer, Corinna had expected her Hogwarts letter to come. She still needed to get her new texts, refill her potions kit, and needed some new inkwells. She had asked Terry about it in the first letter of August, and his answer mirrored her confusion. He also had not received his letter and, it seems, none of his other friends had either. Even Mandy's little sister, who was starting in her first year, had not received anything. Corinna remembered the anticipation she felt when she waited for her letter. Having to wait longer than the beginning of July must be killing all the new students.

Finally, finally, on August the thirty-first, an owl arrived with her booklists and Corinna broke from her routine to head to Diagon Alley.

It felt odd going the Muggle way without her father by her side, but it was part of her new normal without the family she knew. She trudged down to the Muggle underground with its confusing maps and stops. At least she had gone that way a couple other times, so she remembered enough to get to the Leaky Cauldron.

The shops were crowded as everyone was forced to get their supplies until the last minute. Corinna had to visit Gringott's to get the money out of her father's vault to get her things, as well as some pocket money for Hogsmeade weekends. She tried to not let her impatience show as she waited in long lines to get her books and potions kit refills. She did not want to deal with the lines at the stationary shop and would hope she had enough ink to get her to the first Hogsmeade weekend. She was about to head back to the Leaky Cauldron when she paused at the pet shop. She remembered back to a simpler time when she wanted an owl of her own. Now, she had no need for one as she just used her father's. She did spy a very fluffy tabby cat lounging in the late afternoon sun that was coming through the window.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she went inside and paid the fee to finally bring her own pet to Hogwarts.

"I hope you get along with Hermione's cat," Corinna said into the carrier as she stepped out of the Leaky Cauldron and back into the throws of Muggle London. As it was well into the evening now, it was starting to become livelier as people went to meet up at pubs or go to a show.

As she made her way home via the underground, Corinna spied a curious looking device a young boy was playing on. She couldn't for the life figure out what he was doing as he pressed buttons and things flashed across the screen, but on the small, gray plastic bit that the child would put in the device, she spied the world "Zelda" and immediately took a liking to it.

"What do you think?" she asked her new cat in a small voice, barely heard as the train sped through the tunnels. "Do you like the name Zelda?"

The cat meowed in indifference, and Corinna decided to just go for it. At the very least, she liked the name.

Corinna had mixed feelings about going back to school. She was looking forward to being around people again, even if those people did think her brother killed Cedric Diggory. In a way, he did, but the problem was that the Ministry was ignoring the very real threat of You-Know-Who and had, instead, used her brother as a scapegoat.

He's not your brother, Corinna thought with a haughty sigh. She felt sick to her stomach at the idea of considering him anything in relation to herself. At least the term "brother" had applied to him since she could first understand such things.

As she made her way into the house. She set the carrier down and opened the door to let Zelda acclimate to her new environment. She then took her books and supplies upstairs to put them in her trunk along with her school robes and necessary articles of Muggle clothing. Carrying the trunk out of her room to take it downstairs, Corinna froze in front of her father's study. Most of the house she purposefully closed herself off from, save for the common areas, her bedroom, and the guest bathroom in the hall. She stayed out of the other bedrooms and the study. With a firm shake of her head, she went back downstairs and placed the trunk by the front door. She circled back into the kitchen to grab a butterbeer. Thinking better of it, she set it back aside and opened her father's liquor cabinet. He had charmed it to open for only himself, and forbade Winky from ever opening it herself. Since he was dead, the magic had been lifted. He tended towards the finer liquors, but she grabbed the familiar fire whiskey.

She took the bottle with her back up the stairs. After taking a swig to either increase her courage or stupidity and letting the burn settle in her throat, she opened the door and stepped inside.

The office looked almost the same as it did when Corinna had stepped inside to persuade her father to let them take her brother to the world cup. It almost felt like another lifetime had occurred since then. Corinna gave a humorless laugh. In a sick way, it did.

A wizard from her father's old department had came by to grab whatever items were deemed Ministry property. She didn't care what they took, but she decided to spend the day out so she didn't have to watch them cart away her father's things. Because of this, most of the drawers were now empty save for his personal affects. It seemed that the entirety of the Crouches could fit into one file folder.

After a few more sips of the whiskey, Corinna sat down at his desk and she now understood why he was always scowling whenever she saw him in here. The chair was hard and lumpy and should have been replaced a decade or so ago. With a slight scowl, she set the file down on the desk and opened it up.

The first thing on top was her parents' marriage certificate. This year would have marked their fortieth wedding anniversary. It was things like that which brought her new reality into a different light. Her mother would have been on the upper end of her baby rearing years when Corinna was born. It was highly unlikely that she could have successfully reared a child in that time. When she asked her father how her mother had died, he was vague on the details. At first, she thought she had died during childbirth and that it was all her fault. But Winky was allowed to discuss her mother. Her heart was failing, and there wasn't anything the doctors—magical or muggle—could do about it.

Corinna sifted through the file. Their first Hogwarts' letters were there, which seemed more like a sentimental thing than a practical thing to hold onto. There were various duplicates for information that the Ministry needed on Mr. Crouch and his family. It all seemed trivial until she got to the death certificates. They were both dated for just a few days apart. First one being Barty's with the cause being listed as his body giving out. The second was her mother's, listing almost the exact same cause.

She took another drink before going onto the last piece of paper in the file: her birth certificate.

It came at no surprise that it was also forged. It had St. Mungo's seal, along with both her parents' signatures with the officiant date being that of her birthday, which almost seemed impossible. According to the timeline, she would have been almost two years old before she could have been taken in by Mr. Crouch, so he must have either paid handsomely or done a few favors to get the certificate and to also keep it from getting out.

Feeling like she was going to be sick, Corinna set the bottle aside and closed the file. She shoved it back into the drawer she had found it. The other drawers were emptied out, and the only other occupied drawer held some extra inkwells and quills. She even crawled underneath and looked for a secret compartment or anything. If she had, she did not know what she would want to find. A secret diary explaining his reasoning for everything he had done, a note apologizing, or something. Instead, all she had was a folder full of lies and a few inkwells so she didn't have to buy anymore.

The next morning, Corinna woke early, mostly because she was uncomfortable. She had fallen asleep in the living room. After a night of drinking, not having a decent meal, and Zelda deciding that her stomach made for a good bed, she felt awful.

After dry heaving into the toilet, she tried to choke down some porridge knowing the food trolley on the train did not have the best assortment of food. It was a sluggish morning and it took every ounce of self-control to get ready for the day and to make her way to the underground in time to make the train to central London. Zelda refused to go back into the carrier, so Corinna had to wrestle her back in. She howled while on the underground, and Corinna had to keep shooting apologetic looks to those nearby. It was a relief to get back aboveground where the hustle and bustle caused people to pay no mind to the underaged girl with a large trunk and obnoxiously loud cat.

She was normally early for the train, but her father was much better at keeping timetables, and his work always caused them to rush on these mornings. It was a foreign feeling for Corinna to feel like she might miss the train. No wonder Mr. Crouch purposefully made himself early to things. This anxiety caused her chest to tighten and her limbs to twitch uncontrollably.

It was a relief when the scarlet steam engine came into view. She dragged her trunk behind her as she went onto a train car at random as time was running out. Another perk of getting to the platform early meant that she had her pick of compartments. Many were already full and those that had empty seat did not seem all that inviting, especially with the one that was occupied by someone Terry had called "Loony."

As she was not paying attention, Corinna nearly ran into a couple of others that were heading down the car. "Oh, sorry," called out a voice, and then immediately said, "Corinna?"

Corinna looked up and saw Harry standing right in front of her. The last time she had really seen him was during her brother's interrogation. He seemed to be doing much better now that he was no longer injured and had narrowly escaped You-Know-Who. "Hey, Harry," she said, trying to keep her voice light.

"We can just take this one," the red-haired girl behind him said. Although she did not know the youngest Weasley well, she was easy to spot. Behind her was also Neville, carrying a cactus-looking potted plant. It was normally Ron and Hermione who were around Harry. It was almost as if she was seeing Fred without George or Lavender without Parvati. Just strange.

"There's somebody already in there," Harry pointed out. It seemed he was also keen on avoiding most people.

"It's just Loony," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. She opened the compartment door and poked her head in. "Hey, Luna, do you mind if we join you?"

Corinna could immediately understand why Terry and Ginny had called her Loony. She was reading an odd looking magazine upside down and she had an odd assortment of jewelry and an odd, whimsical look in her eyes. "I don't mind," she said and put the magazine back up to her eyes.

They all piled into the compartment and helped each other get their trunks loaded up. It was a muted conversation about how their summers went. Ginny seemed interested in Corinna new cat, Zelda, who seemed to only want the attention when someone was ignoring her. It was already crowded in the compartment with five teenagers, an owl, a cat, and a toad.

"You're Harry Potter," she said airily.

"I know I am."

"And you're Corinna Crouch."

"In the flesh."

She looked over at Neville. "I don't know who you are."

"I'm nobody."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "He's Neville Longbottom. This is Luna Lovegood. She's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure."

She went back behind her magazine and everyone looked confused, except for Ginny who was laughing behind her hand.

It was full of mindless chatter, with Neville talking about his birthday present. Corinna could almost laugh with how mundane it was. She half expected everyone coming up to her about her brother. It was a relief.

Thanks to Neville poking at his plant, all of a sudden, everyone was covered in a dark green liquid that smelled putrid. As she wasn't paying attention, she got a face full of the liquid and she felt like she was going to gag.

"Sorry, Harry, bad time?"

Corinna looked up to see Cho Chang standing in the doorway. She was friends with Terry, so they had hung out a few times. She did not like being covered in green ooze to begin with, but being covered in the stuff in front of someone as beautiful as Cho and the way that Harry was looking at Cho…

After an awkward exchange, Corinna was glad that Cho just left. If he hadn't been covered in green ooze, Corinna was certain he would be beet red. It took a simple Scourgify spell from Ginny for it all to disappear.

Farther into the journey, Ron and Hermione joined them, which was something Corinna was expecting to happen eventually. They looked annoyed and took the meager scraps that were left from their orders from the trolley. They had been at the prefect meeting, and Corinna was not surprised that Hermione became the girl's prefect. Ron was a surprise. If she was going to be honest, the pool to choose from was very shallow. Harry seemed like the obvious choice.

The listed off who the fifth-year prefects were for each year, those being Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott for Hufflepuff, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson for Slytherin, and—"Terry Boot and Padma Patil from Ravenclaw," Hermione finished off the list and then finished a cauldron cake.

"Hey, did you go to the ball with that bloke?" Ron asked Corinna, which was the first time someone had acknowledged that she existed.

"Didn't you go to the ball with that bird?" Corinna parried back.

"They also dated," the voice came from behind the odd-looking magazine called the Quibbler. "I've seen her and Terry snogging at the Astronomy Tower." It was Corinna turn to grow bright red. "But then you two stopped talking. Terry sulked about it in the common room. He never did say what happened." With that, she hid back behind the magazine.

"We had a row," Corinna said with a shrug, which wasn't far from the truth. It was more like Terry was annoyed with Corinna helping Harry with the second task and then her family life went to hell in a handbasket. "Not that it is anyone's business, mind you."

Corinna was glad that the subject shifted off her. She didn't like the spotlight before, not she wanted to avoid the backstage.

She focused outside the window as the sun moved further into the west as they made their journey north. It wasn't until the door opened again and she turned to see Malfoy, already donning his prefect badge, but still sandwiched between his goonies, Crabbe and Goyle. She never liked the boy ever since she first met him when they all first arrived in Hogwarts, and Malfoy hadn't changed much in those last few years.

He didn't stay, only long enough to be his annoying self, but there was an obvious tonal shift about Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They all quickly dressed into their Hogwarts robes as the train began to slow for the station. It was difficult to get all seven students organized with all their trunks and various animals. Corinna managed to balance Zelda's carrier on her trunk as she took up the rear as they filed off the train.

At first, Corinna thought that the horseless carriage rides were going to be another speck of normal, but Harry's hesitancy confused everyone. Except for Luna, of course. While Harry kept insisting that the obviously horseless carriages were pulled by something, she jumped to his defense. They all just dropped the subject.

It was a relief to see Hogwarts castle looming ahead of them. It looked exactly as it had at the end of last year when she watched it retreat. There was an edge to the excitement that filled Corinna's chest, and she didn't like it. She wanted to start anew. She needed this.

The great hall filled with students and the first thing that people did was look at the changes for the staff table. Who was going to be teaching them Defense Against the Dark Arts was always going to be a surprise, but there were two new faces up at the staff table that year, someone occupying where Hagrid usually sat.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were talking in low voices about Hagrid's sudden absence, but Corinna was focused on the toad-like woman in a pink cardigan. It wasn't often that Corinna got out with her father, but Ministry events were one of those few times. She remembered seeing her at mixers or at various meetings.

And the speech she made, interrupting Dumbledore's own, did not help matters. Hermione's explanation as to what was said was summed up succinctly. "The Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."

Corinna woke early after a restless night. She laid in bed, staring up at the canopy of her four-poster as the room steadily grew lighter around her. Finally, at seven, she could no longer take it and she quietly changed into her school robes and left through the portrait hole. She did not expect Terry to standing right by the entrance. "What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

Terry looked like he wasn't quite able to explain it himself. "Mind if we went for a walk before getting out timetables?"

They headed down the hall and back down the stairs to the entrance hall. Terry didn't say anything until they were out onto the grounds, the grass wet from the morning dew. It was cool enough that Corinna wished she had put on a jumper, but she had a feeling that it would be hot once the sun burned off the haze. "How was your summer?"

"It was odd," Corinna admitted. "It was nice to just have my own routine and not deal with it. But, now…"

"Now you feel like you have to deal with it," Terry summed up. Despite how rocky they have been, it seemed that they were still on the same page. "But you don't know how to."

"Could you quit reading me like a book?" Corinna teased, but there was no humor in her tone. She picked at the frayed edge of her bag. "But that's part of it."

"What's the other part?" Terry asked.

Corinna was still torn on what she should and shouldn't say to Terry. She hadn't even had a chance to talk with Harry. He was always around someone, even if it wasn't Ron and Hermione. "I'll let you know when I have it figured out."

Terry nodded as they wandered aimlessly. "So, prefect, huh?" Corinna said and nudged him gently.

"Yeah, I'm honestly surprised it wasn't Anthony Goldstein," Terry admitted and then shrugged. "But I'm glad. My parents were thrilled, especially my mom. She was prefect when she was in school."

"So was my father," Corinna muttered. "But, with Hermione Granger as competition, there was no chance I would be chosen."

Terry paused when Corinna mentioned her father. She wondered how long it would take for people not to freak out whenever he was mentioned. "Don't sell yourself short," Terry said. "If I'm going to be honest, I'm surprised it was Granger and Weasley. They are constantly getting in trouble with Potter."

"Maybe they are hoping that if they made his friends prefects, he might cool it," Corinna said, deciding not to argue that sour point between them. She was willing not to jump to Harry's defense if it meant they could start mending their friendship. "And, let's face it, if they chose Harry, people won't believe it would be for his own merits." That fact made Corinna almost sad that there really was no way that he could live a normal life, but it seemed to make Terry happy.

"But then Snape still chose Malfoy," Terry pointed out with a scowl. "He's already trying to overstep his power."

"Of course he is," Corinna muttered. "We already knew that would happen."

"Yeah," Terry said as he looked away from Corinna. He kicked a pebble until he lost sight of it. Corinna was silent, not wanting to push him. "Listen, I've also been doing some soul searching this summer. I…I don't know how to say this. I haven't even told my parents, yet. I wanted to make sure my best friend knew first."

"Knew what?" Corinna asked, stopping to look at Terry. He hadn't noticed at first, and had to backtrack a few steps. "Terry, whatever it is, I'm here for you."

"I'm gay," he blurted out. He was taken aback by the abruptness of the statement, but then he relaxed into it. "I'm gay," he repeated, sounding relieved now. "That was the first time I actually said it out loud."

Corinna was glad that Terry was babbling, because of all the things she expected him to say, that was not one of them. "Oh," was the only thing she managed to say. "That's great. I'm happy for you."

"You are?" Terry asked, looking unsure of himself.

"Of course," she said. "Just now, when you said it, it seemed to work for you. So, I'm proud you were able to find yourself."

"I figured you would be angry," Terry said with a nervous laugh. "I mean, we used to snog."

"Yeah, and it was super awkward," Corinna reminded.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that." Terry gave Corinna a look. "Does that mean you're…"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm just into blokes," Corinna reassured.

"Hey, so am I!"

"I'm glad you are already making snide remarks about it." She leaned over and gave Terry a quick hug. "You are still the same Terry. Just now we get to argue over the boys we want to date."

"So, who are you interested in?"

Corinna did not like who first popped into her head. "Draco Malfoy," she said and then headed back towards the castle.

"You are such an arse, Corinna Crouch!" Terry followed after Corinna.

"You know," she said as the entrance loomed closer, "we are technically still dating. We never discussed things after you stormed out of the library."

Terry released a tense breath. "Merlin, that feels like a million years ago." He placed his hands on Corinna's shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Corinna, I think we should break up. It's not you, it's…well, it is you. You don't quite have the right equipment I'm looking for."

"Oh, I'm the arse?" she asked with a wide smile on her face. They continued up to the castle. "It's alright. I think we make much better friends, anyway."

Even the happiness of getting Terry back as a friend wasn't diluted by Corinna receiving her timetables. It looked as if she wasn't going to have much more time besides schoolwork and sleep. She didn't understand how people handled being in clubs or quidditch on top of the demands of lessons. Not to mention that she had to deal with that Umbridge woman at the end of the day.

She thought about how it was going to be a long year, but then remembered back to an odd book she read at one of the Muggle shops. Sometimes, it wasn't about getting through the week, month, or year. It was about getting through the day. And then the next. And then the next until you eventually succumb to oblivion.

So, Corinna added that last part, but it worked.

As usual, it was hard to stay awake for Binns' class, who opened the class with how vital this year was going to be for their education as OWLs were quickly approaching. Snape was more focused on making Harry's life hell and lifting the Slytherins up instead of any actual teaching. Corinna had brewed an almost perfect drought of peace, and she wondered where this was last year.

"Stir slower next time, Crouch," Snape muttered as he inspected her cauldron. As he had nothing else to criticize (which she wasn't sure if that was even criticism), he moved on. When he dragged Harry's potion through the mud, she was annoyed on his behalf. His potion was leagues better than the lot Crabbe and Goyle created. When he used the spell to make the potion disappear, Corinna clenched her fists. She didn't know if she was just now picking up on how Snape treated Harry, but it seems that he is even worse to Harry than to the general Gryffindors.

Lunch was an oddly quiet affair as Corinna focused on shoving food in her mouth. She was already feeling the mounting pressure of their homework load. Already two feet of essays to write, and she knew that Babbling was going to give them a large work to translate for the next class. The only one up in the air being what Umbridge was going to assign them for homework.

Corinna found herself seated in the usual classroom for Defense. She sat down next to Neville, much closer to Umbridge than she would have liked. She was wearing a pink cardigan as was waiting patiently at the teacher's desk for the students to file in and take their seats. They were quiet as they weren't certain how she would be as a teacher.

They got off to a wonderful start when she made them tell her "good afternoon" as if they were children who needed to learn how to be polite members of society. And the instruction to put their wands away and to bring out the notetaking supplies was never, ever a good sign. And it especially was not a good sign when they were assigned to read during class. Normally the reading would be done outside the classroom and the teachers would work on the practical or expand upon the theory.

Once they were dismissed to do their own reading with no need to talk, Corinna cracked her book open to the first chapter. She found it extremely dull, and she could find her concentration slipping in the stuffy classroom. It was much easier to swallow such material when she could interject the odd comment with Terry. He would also have a few choice words about Umbridge's teaching style…if one could call it that.

She saw Neville turn in his seat and stare at something, so Corinna looked back. She was surprised to see brownnoser Hermione Granger sitting at the table she shared with Harry and Ron without her book open and her hand raised. Even though she was just sitting there staring at Umbridge, it was much more interesting than the material that they had to read.

If they were able to talk, Corinna figured many people would be betting on who would crack first. Her money would be on Hermione sitting there all class period if that was necessary.

Sure enough, Umbridge got annoyed with all the students not doing as she told and finally spoke up. "Did you have a question about the chapter, dear?"

"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione, who kept her hand up and looked determined.

"Well, we're reading just now," Umbridge reminded, her girly voice making Corinna's skin crawl. "If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"It's about your course aims."

Other than her raised eyebrows, Umbridge gave no other indication about how she felt about the query. "And your name is?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully."

"Well, I don't." Her bluntness cut through the air like a knife. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."

Umbridge gave a girly laugh that could rival Lavender Brown's when she's flirting. "Using defensive spells? Why I can't imagine a situation in my classroom where you would need to use a defensive spell. You sure aren't expecting to be attacked during class, are you, Miss Granger?"

The class then broke out into an argument over something they hadn't realized they needed to defend. Corinna had just copied down what was written, with an eyeroll, sure, but she didn't question it until then.

"But, surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells," Hermione continued when Umbridge called on her once again. Either she didn't learn very quickly or she wanted the chaos.

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" At Hermione's disaffirmation, Umbridge continued. "Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."

"What use is that?" Harry asked loudly. He seemed to be the angriest of them all over this. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a—"

"Hand, Mr. Potter," Umbridge said. She hadn't even pretended not to know who he was, which is what professors have done in the past despite the fact that every wizard-born child knew about the Boy Who Lived. It practically became a bedtime story among many families. She pointedly ignored Harry and called on Dean Thomas—after asking his name, of course.

"Well, it's like Harry said, isn't it? If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk free."

"I repeat," Umbridge said. She was still smiling, but it seemed to ebb as annoyance crept it. "Do you expect to be attacked during my classes?" She didn't even wait for Dean's answer before she continued. "I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," whereas her tone and demeaner read the total opposite, but she needed to save face. Corinna knew the Ministry types. Her father was one of them, after all. "But you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed—not to mention," she gave a nasty laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."

"If you are talking about Professor Lupin," Dean piped up angrily, "he was the best we ever—"

"Hand, Mr. Thomas! As I was saying—you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to you age group and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet dark attacks every other day—"

Hermione rose her hand after dealing with the usual battle of raising ones hand to actually speak in a classroom, but Umbridge pointedly ignored it. "It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you."

"Well, he turned out to be a maniac," Corinna muttered, having no qualms of calling her brother that. "We still learned loads."

"Your hand is not up, Miss Crouch." Her eyes bored into Corinna's as she shot her hand up. It was ignored. "Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is about. And your name is?"

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Art O.W.L.? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the counter-curses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions," said Umbridge.

"Without ever practicing them beforehand?" said Parvati incredulously. "Are you telling us the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough—"

"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" Harry asked loudly.

"This is a school," Umbridge reminded, as if none of them knew that fact before today, "not the real world."

"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting for us out there?"

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."

"Oh yeah? There's nothing waiting out there. Certainly not Lord Voldemort."

Corinna had to prevent Neville from falling from his seat as the usual affects of You-Know-Who's true name was said. Even Corinna bit back a gasp. She was surprised that Umbridge did not so much as flinch when Harry said the name. "Ten points from Gryffindor." That immediately shut everyone up. It was all fun and games until the House Cup was on the line. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain." She stood up and leaned towards them. Corinna swore her eyes were bulging like a toad's. "You have been told that a certain dark wizard has returned from the dead—"

"He wasn't dead, but, yeah, he's returned."

Umbridge looked like she wanted to take away more points from Gryffindor, but she just gave Harry a thinly-veiled warning and continued. "As I was saying. You have been informed that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This. Is. A. Lie."

"It's NOT a lie," Harry bellowed. "I saw him. I fought him."

When Corinna looked back to look at Harry, she momentarily saw the injured, broken boy that came back from the maze. She didn't blame him for being so angry at those who invalidated what he went through, and downright said it didn't happen. Corinna was there. She heard what her brother had to say. There was no doubt that it happened.

"Detention, Potter," Umbridge said, dragging Corinna back to the present. She forced herself to turn away from Harry and look up at the wretched woman. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat: this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means, come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn dark wizard, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners.'"

As Umbridge sat back down, a chair scraped behind Corinna. She turned to see Harry stand up against Hermione's protests. "So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead on his own accord, did he?"

It was as if someone magicked all the air out of the classroom. Not many people heard what happened to Harry in the maze. Corinna only knew because of her brother's confession. To many, it was a tragedy that happened and then they were all sent home for the summer. No one knew who to look at as their eyes darted back and froth between Harry and Umbridge, another battle of who would crack first.

"Cedric Diggory was killed by Bartemius Crouch Jr.," Umbridge said, and Corinna could feel a few eyes flicker over to her. "He confessed before he was subjected to the dementor's kiss."

"He did no such thing," Corinna hissed in a low voice. "He wasn't blameless, but he wasn't the one who uttered the curse. And the Minister mucked it up by having my brother killed before you could interrogate him."

"Ten more point from Gryffindor," Umbridge said with a wide grin. "And I would keep your mouth shut, Crouch, unless you want to join your friend here for detention."

Corinna felt angry tears burning in her eyes as she glared at Umbridge. Even if she wanted to say anything else, she felt her throat tighten and she could not find the will to speak.

"As I was saying," Umbridge continued, looking satisfied with herself, "the man who killed the poor Diggory boy has been taken care of."

"He hasn't because he is still at large," Harry said. "Because Voldemort was the one who murdered Cedric Diggory."

Umbridge's toadlike mouth beckoned Harry forward to the front of the room. He stood in front of her desk while she slowly wrote a note. "Why do you take this to Professor McGonagall, dear." He took the note without another word and stomped out of the classroom. The door slammed shut and not a whisper was said among the students.

"As I was saying," Umbridge continued in her girly voice, "Page Five. 'Basics for Beginners.'" And not another word was said, and nary a sound from the other students until they were dismissed after their double period. Harry had not come back at all in that time.

"Oh, Miss Crouch," Umbridge said as they were all quickly packing away to leave the classroom, some much faster than others. "If I just might have a word with you, dear."

Corinna stepped up to Umbridge's desk as the last of the students filed out to finally be free. She was silent as she meticulously put her things in her bag when she could have easily magicked them in there. But she was determined not to say anything at first.

"I understand you have been through a great ordeal at the end of last year, dear," said Umbridge. She might have been able to put on a caring facade, but it was easy to see right through it. When Corinna didn't comment, she continued. "I will forgive your lapse in judgement this time as a courtesy to an old friend of mine. But I would watch whom you associate yourself with, Miss Crouch. I have a feeling you will go a long way if you stick with the right sorts." She stood and smiled widely when Corinna still had not said a word. "You do have a desire to join the Ministry when you finish school, of course."

Corinna paused a moment, and then reconsidered her answer. "Oh, yes," she said with a reassuring smile. "Although, I don't think I'm quite cut out for it."

"Nonsense," she said. "If you are anything like Barty, it is in your blood. Just watch out what you say and who you are seen with. I happen to know that the Ministry will be keeping a closer eye on this place. That means that those who show an early interest in the Ministry will be noted. I'll be sure to tell Cornelius-er, that is, the Minister-of your interest. Is that alright, dear?"

"Of course," Corinna said with a sickening grin. "Be sure to give my best to the Minister."

Feeling like she had drunk bubotuber pus, she left the classroom.


	2. In Which Corinna Accepts Numerous Invitations

Things should have been looking up for Corinna. She got her friend back, and they were spending study sessions in the library again. Although there seemed to be a lot more studying now since they had so much work piled onto them. It helped that they had virtually opposite schedules, so they could each warn the other what is to come. She was back into a routine that didn't make reading in the garden sound exciting.

The problem was Dolores Umbridge.

A week later, the Daily Prophet ran an article about how Umbridge was going to be Hogwarts' first High Inquisitor, confirming Corinna's beliefs that the Ministry was going to be interfering at Hogwarts. It didn't make her feel any better to be right about something like this.

She did as she should. She kept her head down and didn't say another word out of turn, no matter how much she wanted to make that woman choke on her own words.

It was a relief that their first Hogsmeade weekend was coming up. However, she did not expect Hermione to approach her a few days before.

They were sitting in Ancient Runes. Corinna was fretting over some of her mistranslations when Hermione leaned over. "Umbridge is not actually preparing us for what's out there," she said without preamble as Babbling had gone back to the front of the class. "I'm arranging something to help us get some practical experience."

Corinna waited until Babbling's back was to them when she started writing notes on the board. "Who will teach us?"

"Harry, of course."

She tried not to react when Hermione mentioned him. "Anything to piss off the Umbridge. When and where?"

"We'll be meeting in the Hog's Head around noon," Hermione said after it was safe. "I was hoping you could talk to Terry and the other Ravenclaws. I know some of them would be dying to get a chance to work on the practical side of things."

"Yeah, no problem," Corinna replied. "I'll pass the word along."

"Just to those we can trust," Hermione insisted. "We can't have her finding out about this. There isn't anything in the school rules against it, but this is the Ministry we are talking about."

So that night at their usual table in the library, Corinna told Terry about Hermione's plan. "Yeah, a few of us would definitely be on board," he agreed easily. "You have no idea how much we all need this."

"Just keep it need to know," Corinna reminded. "If they are leaning towards siding with Umbridge and the Ministry, you can't tell them."

"I am the king of discretion."

"Says the man who insisted on snogging in public areas."

"When will you let that go, Crouch?"

"Six months from never, Boot."

The morning of the Hogsmeade visit brought in an autumnal chill that threatened with winter. They had bundled up with their winter cloaks and various winter gear to brace through the paths up to the village.

As they were told not to gather at the Hog's Head until the time Hermione told everyone, Corinna and Terry decided to spend the morning with some of the other Ravenclaws that agreed to learned Defensive magic from Harry Potter. As much as they wanted to talk about it, they kept their talks to the mundane of classes and other gossip.

After loading up with sweets, they trudged down the lane and made their way inside the Hog's Head Inn. It was not a place where students gravitated towards as it appeared to be your standard pub that attracted more of the, shall we say, dregs of wizarding society.

It seemed that a lot of people were eager to learn from Harry. Some were on the skeptical side, like Corinna's favorite metaphorical punching bag, Zacharias Smith, but he was easily put in his place.

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" Harry asked, looking straight at Zacharias Smith. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone." He then looked at the others sitting there. "If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone, I can't help you. I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So, if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out."

When no one moved, Hermione jumped back in. "So, like I was saying. If you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to—"

She was interrupted by a Hufflepuff—Susan Bones—asking if Harry can produce a corporeal patronus, which got everyone excited all over again. And then it moved onto all the things that Harry accomplished from when he was eleven all the way to the final task last year. "Look," he said, looking embarrassed, "I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but…I had a lot of help with all that stuff…"

"Not with the dragon, you didn't."

"And nobody helped you get rid of those Dementors this summer."

"Are you trying to get out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacharias Smith demanded.

"How about you shut up," Corinna muttered. "We saw him during all the tasks last year. You can't fake that."

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it."

Once the Weasley twins pulled out an odd-looking instrument that they claimed to clean his ears so he can hear what is actually being said, Zacharias finally kept his mouth shut.

"So, we agree to get lessons from Harry," Hermione said, looking relieved that they were finally moving on. "Well, then the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week."

That's when all the quidditch players jumped up to complain that they need to work around all of the house schedules. With three of them to coordinate, Corinna was glad that there weren't any Slytherins involved. Hermione reassured that they will find a night that will suit everyone, pointing out that it would be important towards defending themselves against the Death Eaters.

But then there came the problem of where to have meetings. There were over twenty students to have to coordinate, and since this technically wasn't legal, the library or an empty classroom was out, as was outside since winter was knocking on their doorstep. "Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," Hermione conceded when it was fruitless to come up with a place right then. "We'll send a message round to everybody when we've got a time and a place for the first meeting.

"So, if you are interested, I think we should all sign the paper," Hermione said, stammering slightly. Although some of the students protested—particularly some of the prefects—one by one, each student wrote their name. Corinna couldn't help but look up at Harry as she wrote her name after Terry's. Since she was the last in the group to sign it, she handed the quill back to Hermione.

"I am so dead if my parents find out about this," Terry muttered as they left the Hog's Head and made their way back to the main drag. "But it's important. It's just like a study group, right?"

"Sure," Corinna said, as she saw a bright haired witch stumble over a fence by the Three Broomsticks.

"Wotcher!" she said as she grabbed onto the nearest thing, which just happened to be Terry, to prevent her from falling. "I swear to Merlin's pants that they move them around just to purposefully trip me up." She looked up at the two of them and smiled. "Name's Tonks. I was actually looking for you."

Terry and Corinna exchanged confused looks. At Corinna's shrug, she turned back to the witch. "I'm sorry. I think you got me confused with someone else."

"I don't think there are many Corinna Crouches roaming about Hogwarts," she said.

"Look, if this is about her brother," Terry said jumping to Corinna's defense.

Tonks looked between Corinna and she wished she could read minds to figure out what the witch was doing. But, just then, the Weasley twins along with their friend Lee Jordan were passing by and said their hellos to this Tonks. "What are you doing in Hogsmeade?" Fred (Corinna assumed) asked. "Is it for...business?"

"Family matters, actually," Tonks said with a slight wink to Corinna. "Go do something I would do." As they retreated back down the lane, she turned to Corinna. "Sorry about that. I know their family."

"It's alright, Terry," Corinna said, not putting much hope into the wink. "I'll meet you back at the castle."

Terry looked torn, but some of his Ravenclaw friends were calling after him, and he scurried to catch up, but he still looked back at Corinna just to make sure she was safe.

"Let's go in here," Tonks said as she motioned to the Three Broomsticks. It was much livelier in here than in the Hog's Head, and if was near impossible to find a secluded booth. They found one in the back and they slid inside. Tonks ordered a round of butter beers and paid for them on the spot. "Sorry for being tetchy earlier. I didn't know how you would react if I said anything about..."

"How do you know?" Corinna asked coolly. If Harry told anyone...

"Dumbledore told us about what happened last year," Tonks explained. "Us being a secret order he put together once You-Know-Who came back into power. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Why don't I start at the beginning and we'll work our way from there? Alright?"

Corinna still looked skeptical, but she slowly nodded.

"Family is messy," Tonks began as Madam Rosmerta placed a couple of glasses on the table. Tonks took a drink, but Corinna hadn't moved a muscle. "My mum has two sisters who she hasn't talked to since she married my Muggle-born father. See, she comes from a family who believed that their blood status was the most important thing about them. They both had married into pureblood families and she hadn't heard much from them. Later, I found an old tapestry with my mum burned out of it. I wasn't even on it!"

"All my mum knew was that her two sisters had children around the same age, but she didn't know much about that. This was during the height of the war and she suspected that they were involved somehow with the Death Eaters. I was also seven or eight at the time, so I didn't know much myself.

"I do remember when my mum first heard her sister and her husband were sent to Azkaban. She wasn't surprised as that lot were some of You-Know-Who's most loyal. She was worried about the little girl she never met. Except, she didn't have much to go on. All she knew was that they had a daughter and she would have been a year or two old, but that's it. At the time, the Ministry kept information about their prisoners under strict lock and key. But what was odd was that, by the time my mum and dad managed to get information out of the Ministry, it was like she never existed.

"Eventually, they just gave up. Well, they had to. They had no other leads. My mum even tried to talk with her other sister, but she kept ignoring the owls. All they could hope was that the little girl had gone to a loving family, just another orphan in a sea of them after the war.

"So, we lived our lives. I graduated from Hogwarts, went to train to be an Auror, and before the green even had a chance to rub off, here's my supervisor telling me that the Ministry is lying about You-Know-Who and that Professor Dumbledore is putting together a secret order to help fight him. 'Course I jump at the chance. Had a fair few classmates who had lost loved ones during the first go-around and I wanted to help.

"Part of it was getting an explanation on what really happened at the end of last year, not the Ministry revised edition. Don't worry, he had left a few details out when telling most everyone. But then Dumbledore had pulled me aside to give me the un-unrevised edition. The one involving an extramarital affair and a brother that wasn't quite so.

"That's putting it mildly." Tonks had drained her butter beer before Corinna even had a chance to take a sip of hers. She hadn't even paid attention to when Tonks had taken a drink as she was too absorbed in the story.

"When Dumbledore told me what Crouch confessed to, I knew I had to tell my mum, and he agreed. She might have moved on, but she was still worried about the little girl she never knew. She was so angry that someone within the Ministry got to you first. She had thought to march right down to where you were, but Dumbledore intervened. He said in his wise and infinite wisdom, that you needed to come to terms with what happened at your own pace and to leave family reunions until you were ready to accept them with open arms. So, we kept our distance, and Dumbledore sent some of the Order to keep an eye on you.

Color drained from Corinna's face. "He knew I wasn't at Terry's?"

Tonks chuckled. "Nothing escapes that man. Nothing. But he understood. You needed space, and you weren't going to get that at your friend's place or with us. He did not, however, appreciate the fact that you went back to a place that You-Know-Who knows about without any sort of wards or protections. But since, again, nothing escapes him, he knew he wouldn't do anything and only had a couple of us on watch."

"So, why now?" Corinna asked, holding onto the glass to try to stop her hands from shaking so much. "Why are you telling me all this now?"

"Because you had your time," Tonks said. She sighed heavily as she set her empty glass to the edge of the table. "I get it. Like I said, family is messy. But we wanted you to know you have someone looking out for you. You do not need to make your decision right now, but my mum would have a cow if I don't offer it. Come visit us for Christmas. It will only be for a few weeks and we want to get to know you, my mum especially." Tonks hesitated a moment. "And I know what you might have heard about your own mum. If it helps, we aren't anything like her. Although my parents were never part of the Order, they have always been against You-Know-Who."

"I believe you," Corinna reassured as she shifted her hands to her lap, restless.

"But you still don't trust me," said Tonks and Corinna could not disagree with that assessment. "I don't blame you. I would not want to trust a perfect stranger who knows as much as I do. My mum said you can send an owl at any time with any questions you might have, and they'll do their best to answer them." She sighed heavily. "I know you are no longer that little girl, but that doesn't change how worried my mum is. Just think about it." She glanced at her watch. "Is it really that late already? I have to get back to work. It was good to meet you, Corinna." She shakily stood up and offered her a hand that she tentatively hand.

Hesitating a moment, Corinna stood up and accepting Tonks' hand. "It was good to meet you, too, Tonks."

"Next time, we won't leave as formally." As she turned to leave, she knocked into an umbrella stand and apologized profusely.

Corinna was lost in thought, nearly running into a group of third years as they all scrambled to make it back onto the grounds before curfew. The first thing she wanted to do was rush to Terry and talk to him about what had happened, but that would require having to tell him the truth of her parentage. Instead, she went to the common room to unwind and sort through what just happened.

At least the Christmas holidays were weeks away. At least she would have Defense meetings to look forward to.

Or so she thought.

When they woke Monday morning, they were greeted by Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four banning all groups unless okayed by the High Inquisitor. Having no doubt that the Defense meetings were still going to happen ("When have rules ever stopped them before?" Corinna pointed out to Terry), but Terry was also worried about quidditch. Although he wasn't on the team, he still cared about the sport and wanted to get the Cup from the Gryffindors.

Although she didn't care much for the sport, she knew for a fact that Umbridge would either drag her feet about allowing Gryffindors to play or just flat-out disallow them from playing. Besides, she liked the little interhouse rivalry she had with Terry, and that won't happen if her house wasn't in the running for the cup.

After Defense lessons that day, Corinna hung back and approached the desk. "Ah, Miss Crouch," she said. "What do I owe the pleasure?" She looked at her almost hungrily.

"I'm sorry if I am bothering you, Professor," Corinna said, channeling her inner Barty Crouch, Sr. "I just wanted to congratulate you on another wonderful decree. It is bringing us one step closer to a much better school and learning environment." She tried to make her voice drip with honey, but she was afraid she had gone over the threshold into venom instead.

"Thank you, dear," Umbridge said. If she could tell that Corinna was being fake, she gave no indication. "I know some of your peers do not see it as such. Why, I just had to turn your quidditch captain away from resuming practices. I don't believe all on that team are deserving of the privilege."

She could have just said Harry. It was quite plain who she was talking about. "Completely understandable," she said with an easy smile. "People need to learn that there are consequences to their actions."

"Precisely. I knew you would see things my way, unlike some of your lot." She had tucked her quill and papers she was grading into her bag. "In fact, there is something I wanted your help with."

"Name it," Corinna said without hesitation.

"I have a credible source who told me about a clandestine meeting that Mr. Potter ran in the Hog's Head." Corinna nodded and tried to look surprise to make it seem that this is the first she is hearing about it. "It was actually what gave me the idea for the decree. We cannot have order if students are free to do such things without consequences."

"Now, this is where you come in, dear. As you are a Gryffindor, you could ease your way into the group. If you could relay any information about what they are doing, I may be inclined to not only give the Gryffindor quidditch team my assent to play in November, but there may be something more in it for you too, Miss Crouch. Yes, I can see you are just like your father. You may even become Minister just as he wanted, as long as you stick with the right crowd."

I would rather jump off the Astronomy Tower. "I won't let you down, Professor," she reassured, her heart pounding very hard in her chest. "No one will be the wiser."

"Good girl," Umbridge said. "There might be hope for you yet."

Umbridge headed down the hall back to her office and Corinna went the opposite way to the Gryffindor common room. "What the hell did I just get myself into?" she scolded herself.

"Talking to yourself again?" Terry teased as he joined her. "What did Umbridge want?"

"I'll tell you later," Corinna reassured. "I just need to talk to Harry, Ron, and Hermione first. Okay, yeah, we really do just need one name for them."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Terry said. "Is it going to interfere with our study date?"

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

She broke off from Terry and made a beeline to the Great Hall, a bundle of electric nerves as she looked about and tried to spot Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were seated with some of the other fifth years, but they were only talking amongst themselves. With a steadying sigh, she straightened up in hopes to appear more confident than she actually felt. She managed to squeeze her way next to the three of them. Much to her slight annoyance, it was right next to Harry. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she loaded up her plate with food she did not intend to eat. "Just pretend that I always have dinner with you all." She really hoped that she only sounded nervous to herself.

"Why?" Ron asked. Hermione nudged him and subtly motioned to Umbridge at the staff table, who had a wide grin as she watched Corinna. "Why is she giving us that look?"

"I can't really say right now," Corinna said, pretending as if she couldn't see Umbridge. "Suffice to say that I need her to think that I am cozying up. I'll explain in the common room later." She shoved a piece of bread in her mouth. "So, what do you normally talk about? What school rule you're going to break next?"

The three of them looked unsure as they watched Corinna now. "That's not how it usually goes," Harry admitted. "Breaking the rules kind of happens naturally."

"Er, of course," Corinna said easily. "Just talk about whatever. I'll pipe in once in a while with an on topic but witty remark. And you'll want to deal with it if you want even a sliver of a chance of Gryffindor playing quidditch ever again."

"And what can you do about it?" Ron asked.

"I'll explain myself later when we can't be overheard," Corinna muttered.

After an awkward dinner, the four of them left early and headed back into the common room. "I'm sorry for doing that," she said as they chose a secluded corner away from everyone else. "I had to make sure Umbridge saw me talking with you."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Because I am such an idiot," Corinna said honestly. She quickly explained the conversation she had with Umbridge after class. For the most part, they had stayed quiet, except for when Hermione wanted some clarification. "So, yeah, what started off as trying to butter her up to try to get her to let Gryffindor play turned into me promising her that I would spy on Harry about the secret meetings."

"This is perfect," Hermione said with a wicked smile.

"How is that perfect?" Ron asked. "She knows about the meeting."

"We had already figured that," she said dismissively. "Now we know for sure, and we have someone on the inside. Well, kind of."

"You want me to play the double agent?" Corinna asked, making sure she heard Hermione correctly.

"It's brilliant really," Hermione said. "You can feed her false information. Get her off our scent. And in turn, you might be able to find out information about what she is doing that might help us."

"Are we sure you can do this, Corinna?" Harry asked. "That's a lot to ask. And you could get into huge trouble if you're caught."

"About as much trouble as teaching a bunch of students Defense since she's a shite teacher?" Corinna challenged. "I can handle myself just fine, thanks. I just have to act like the perfect little tattle tale."

"We're going to have to give her something so Corinna can get into her good graces," said Hermione as she turned the thought over in her mind. "Actually, I think I might have something. I can give it to you tomorrow to give to Umbridge."

"Yeah, alright," Corinna said as she stood up. "Have a good night." She took her bag over to a free table to study and left the three of them to plot or plan or whatever it was they did when other people weren't around.

In their dorm room the next morning, they had waited for Lavender and Parvati to go down to breakfast. They were part of the group, but they all thought it was best to keep this between the four of them. Hermione handed Corinna a blank bit of parchment. "I'm waiting for the cleverness to kick in," she said plainly.

"I've linked this piece of parchment with one I have in my bag," Hermione explained in a low voice. "I got the idea from the…well, from something I read about. See, it's charmed. Whatever I write on my piece of parchment, it will show up on this." She shook the parchment. "It also works vice versa. Whatever Umbridge decides to write, I will also see. The messages will disappear after a few seconds. I figured Umbridge would have quite the time trying to confiscate everyone's spare parchment. We can feed her lies and lay her astray."

Corinna nodded and put the parchment in her bag. "I'll give it to her between classes so I can't dawdle too much. I'll just say I nicked it from some unknown third year, and say I got nothing from the three of you. It won't completely get her off your scent, but it's a start."

Hermione bit her lip and her brows knit together with worry. "I just…I hope this is all worth it in the end."

"It's like you said," Corinna said as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "In a way, this is bigger than school. And coming from someone like you, Hermione, it speaks volumes." She glanced at the time and they both headed for the stairs. "I'll get this parchment to Umbridge. Find us a room so we can learn to kick Death Eater arse."

Corinna went in between her morning classes to give the parchment to Umbridge. Although she kept pressing Corinna to explain herself, she stuck to the script that her and Hermione came up with, and rushed out of the room before she could be late for Charms.

That evening, when Corinna made it back to the common room after talking with Terry and telling him all she could about what had transpired, Harry came up to her. "We are allowed to play quidditch again," he said, but he looked hesitant. "Angelina thinks that McGonagall may have gone to Dumbledore and he forced her to accept."

Corinna was a little miffed that her efforts may not have been what helped the Gryffindor quidditch team get their fair shake, but the effort wasn't for naught. "At least we have something that can throw Umbridge off our scent when we finally start to have meetings."

He glanced around a moment before shoving his hands in his pockets. "We never really talked about last year."

"To be honest, I don't want to talk about it," Corinna admitted. "I've done my soul searching, I've come to terms with it. Just…please don't tell anyone who my parents are. That is not a fact I really want advertised."

"You know, I have a godfather who came from a family of Voldemort sympathizers and Death Eaters," Harry said, moving on from the slight squeak Corinna gave. "He turned out to be the bravest and strongest man I know." He cleared his throat. "I'll see you around, Corinna."

"You too, Harry," Corinna said as she watched Harry retreat to his friends. She tried to ignore her flip-flopping stomach as she thought about what Tonks had told her in the Three Broomsticks. Family really is messy.

Instead of finishing up her Charms essay, she grabbed a fresh piece of parchment and began to write.

When Corinna went into the Great Hall the next day, she did not expect Harry to motion to her. "We have a meeting tonight," he announced. "Eight o'clock. Seventh floor opposite the tapestry of Barnebas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. Pass it along to Terry and have him pass it along to the other Ravenclaws."

"Gotcha," Corinna reassured. She grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it in her mouth. Even though it was an obvious detour, she stopped by Terry to tell him about where and when the Defense meeting would be. He promised to pass it along and she made her way to the owlery.

Although she hadn't personally brought the owl with her as her official pet, it seemed her father's old owl followed her anyway. He came down from his nest and accepted a bit of crust that Corinna offered. "I need you to send this to Nymphadora Tonks." Now she completely understood why she only introduce Corinna with her last name. When she asked Fred and George in the common room that morning, they explained that she loathed her given name. "You don't have to wait for a reply unless she says to." The barn owl spread its great wings and flew off.

Once she sent the letter, she felt much lighter. It was a very difficult letter to write, even if she kept it as simple as possible. She couldn't make any promises, but she was willing to spend the break with them. It at least gave her something to look forward to besides Defense meetings, even if she was nervous about meeting her family.

She met with Terry at their usual spot in the library after dinner. They kept their conversation focused on their schoolwork even though all they wanted to talk about was the meeting. Although they usually waited until curfew, this time they left a few minutes before eight o'clock so they could stash their things sans their wands in their respective dormitories. They met outside the door that Corinna knew hadn't been there before and walked in together.

A few others had already gathered for the meeting, chatting away happily. Once everyone had gathered inside, everyone turned expectantly to Harry. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we should practice first…" He glanced over at his friend who had raised her hand, in a much similar manner to what she used to do in Umbridge's class until she gave in and reread whatever chapter they were on. "Yeah, Hermione?"

"We ought to elect a leader," she said plainly.

"Harry's leader," Cho said and Corinna tried not to scoff.

"I think we ought to vote on it," said Hermione. "It makes it formal and gives him authority. Everyone who thinks Harry ought to be leader?" Once everyone had their hands raised, even those who were reluctant, she continued. "We should also have a name," she continued after Harry's quick thanks. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

After dismissing anything that was obvious Ministry bashing, Cho came up with the Defense Association. "Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?" There were quite a few chuckles at that, even with Corinna joined in. It was put to another vote, and although not everyone was in favor, it was still a majority. Hermione took the slip of paper they had all signed and put "Dumbledore's Army" at the bottom where there was room.

Now that they were finally done with the decision-making part of the meeting, Harry had moved onto actually teaching them defense, starting out with the disarming charm, Expelliarmus. Although Zacharias put up a stink (as usual), Harry put him and others who were skeptical but less vocal in their place by telling them they can leave. Since no one wanted to do such a thing, although Corinna was certain if this were a normal lesson with one of the usual professors, someone would have actually left after that sort of invitation. Harry showed them the pronunciation and the wand movements and the split them all into pairs.

Corinna immediately paired up with Terry. They had their wands trained on each other. "I promise to go easy on you, Crouch."

"Shove it, Boot," Corinna muttered. After Harry's countdown, they both shouted Expelliarmus along with everyone else in the room. It was a chaos as some wands flew everywhere. Much to their confusion, both Corinna and Terry lost their wands. They laughed as they went to collect their wands, and Corinna got annoyed when Zacharias grabbed her wand that landed close to his. "Can't even manage with your own wand so you thought you'd try mine?"

"How are you even doing that?" Zacharias asked, but he was looking over at his partner, Anthony Goldstein, who was just standing there with his wand limply at his side.

Corinna glanced over at Harry was making his rounds and they both noticed Fred and George using the charm behind Zacharias's back. "Sorry, Harry," said George. "Couldn't resist."

Corinna grabbed her wand from Zacharias and went back to where her and Terry were standing. It only took one more attempt and Terry's wand went flying straight back and nearly knocked into the Creevey brothers. She decided to be nice to him and summoned it back over to them. As they continued to practice, it seemed that Terry was a better spellcaster as he was more successful when he did hit, but Corinna had better instincts and was quicker to react.

"If only we could somehow combine forces," Terry said when her wand went flying when she decided to not say it right away and he easily caught it. "We would be unstoppable."

Harry had reshown them how to do it properly and then went around to each group to correct their technique. After a couple of tries, Corinna was able to successfully, not only be faster than Terry, but was able to successfully disarm him with a perfect arch. "That was brilliant, Corinna," Harry said, coming up from behind her, and she tried to ignore the fact that her cheeks began to burn. It came to a surprise to everyone when someone had realized it was past nine o'clock. They all pocketed their wands and excitedly hoped they could meet sooner than a week from now, but nothing was set in stone. They were all sent out in smaller groups, and Harry used his curious map of Hogwarts to keep an eye on things so they wouldn't get caught. Corinna said goodnight to Terry as she left with a small group of Gryffindors.

As she wasn't one to do extra-curricular activities outside of classes, Corinna didn't realize how much easier it was to look forward to the next week when there was a goal at the end of it that wasn't just another weekend of studying and hanging out with Terry. Although she wasn't the biggest fan of how unpredictable the meetings were, she knew it might be best to do it as such so it was hard to see a pattern. It also helped that Hermione, enlisting Dean's help as he was good at forging handwriting, had wrote down nonsense on the piece of paper that, if the code was cracked, would just be a silly joke. But, as there wasn't much time to copy or memorize the nonsense, Umbridge would be left scrambling to decipher it, if she could even get to that point.

It was hard not to talk about the meetings when she met up with Terry in the library. They decided not to say anything in case Madam Pince was around and overheard them.

Although Corinna appreciated what she was learning as it would be invaluable, she also couldn't help but enjoy the fact that it also meant that, in a way, she was defying what her father stood for. He was a sycophant to the very end, and with what the Ministry had done about her brother, she had no qualms in doing something like this. It was a much more effective middle finger than she could have come up with on her own.

And then there was Tonks. She had received a letter just a couple days later stating that Tonks would meet her on the Platform when the train went to London at the end of term. It was something to look forward to when she wasn't sure when the next meeting was going to be.

Inspired by her own Protean charm on the parchment she gave Umbridge and by the Dark Mark that the Death Eaters received, Hermione came up with a way to communicate the time and date of the meetings to the various members. She had created some fake galleons that looked almost exactly as the real deal, but Harry could change the numbers on his and all the others would grow hot and the numbers would reflect the change. Terry, of course, had to ask her why she wasn't in Ravenclaw is she was able to cast such a powerful charm as a fifth year.

Corinna was also annoyed that the meetings were put on hold for quidditch. Since the quidditch cup wasn't held during the previous year, it was much more exciting than it normally would be. Even Terry was excited, even though the first match of the season was always Gryffindor versus Slytherin. "I am looking forward to my house wiping the floor of you lot," Terry reassured. "I just don't want Slytherin to get a chance to win the cup, even if we will beat them, as well."

She also didn't like walking with all the other excited students down to the quidditch pitch on that calm and cool Saturday morning. It reminded her too much of what happened at the last quidditch game she had gone to. Terry had borrowed a Gryffindor scarf from Corinna as his way of showing support, which was much more subtle than the way Luna decided to show off with a large lion's head on top of hers like a hat and, whenever she tapped it with her wand, it would roar. Terry mumbled something about not claiming her for his house as they took their seats. Although it was a clear day with the sun shining brightly, there was still a chill for those sitting in the stands. She took the bedspread off her four-poster and draped it over her and Terry to give them a little bit more warmth.

Corinna joined in with the cheering when the teams walked out onto the pitch and mounted their brooms. Although he was quite a few meters away, she could tell that Ron looked like he was going to be sick as he made his way over to the Gryffindor goalposts.

"Let's hope Potter catches the Snitch quickly," Terry said, and Corinna barely heard him over the roar of the crowd.

"Yeah," she said as she looked around. She glanced over to wear a group of Slytherins had taken up a section of the stands, swaying in time with each other. "Are they…singing?"

Sure enough, it seemed that they were coordinated enough to put together a few verses of a song of their own design, the main theme being "Weasley is Our King." "Despite some of the slant rhyming, it is quite clever," said Terry.

"Yeah, but look what it's doing to Ron." He had let the Quaffle through a couple of times and, each time, the singing grew louder and Ron grew more frustrated. Corinna had to resist the urge to hide her eyes as she could not stand the scene in front of her. "It's honestly so pathetic."

"He's just nervous."

"Not Ron," Corinna muttered, rolling her eyes. "The Slytherins. Don't they have better things to do than come up with a bloody song like that?"

"You know they don't."

It was an uncomfortable scene as the Gryffindor team did their best to keep the Quaffle on the Slytherin side for Ron's sake. Harry circled around the pitch, looking out for the Snitch. Malfoy, as the Slytherin Seeker, seemed to be jeering. It was a relief when she saw Harry dive towards the ground, but Malfoy was hot on his tail. Terry was literally on the edge of his seat as he watched the two of them vie for the snitch. Before Corinna could process what she had just witnessed, Terry, and everyone else in the stands who weren't supporting Slytherin, were on their feet and cheering. Despite the lead that Slytherin had, Gryffindor had one with the hundred and fifty points the Snitch gets them.

After the whistle calling the end of the game was blown, Corinna saw one of the burly Slytherin beaters (she honestly couldn't tell if it was Crabbe or Goyle from where she sat) had hit the Bludger in Harry's direction and it hit him in the back. Corinna was now on her feet as she saw Harry fall to the ground. It wasn't far for him to fall, but it was still uncalled for and Madam Hooch was giving Crabbe or Goyle a sharp scolding. Corinna only relaxed when she saw Harry stand up with the help of his teammates, who had landed by him.

Unfortunately, as did Malfoy. She could not hear what was being said, but it was enough that Fred and George had to be held back by their teammates, with the three beaters handling George and Harry single-handedly holding Fred back. Ron had flown from the goalposts and immediately headed into the locker rooms, unaware of what his teammates were dealing with just a short distance away.

"What are they…" Terry peered down at the field just in time for Harry to release Fred and they were both going after Malfoy. "Oh, shite!"

Corinna was left speechless as she saw Harry and Fred go after Malfoy the muggle way. When she saw McGonagall rushing towards the scene, she relaxed a little. They would not get off scot free, but at least she would be fair to their punishment.

However, the teacher who was following after her, was not.

"Merlin's pants, they're screwed." When Corinna went into the Gryffindor common room after the match, forced out of their seats by various professors so people wouldn't dawdle at the scene on the pitch, her suspicions were confirmed. Harry, Fred, and George (even though he did not throw a single punch thanks to the chasers' efforts) were kicked off the team with a permanent Quidditch ban. It was all anyone would talk about all weekend, and Corinna was tired of talking about it with Terry, who admitted that he was glad that Harry wasn't going to be playing seeker when Gryffindor played Slytherin. Corinna had left their table and went to study in the common room, after that.

It also didn't help that, come Monday, Umbridge was willing to gauge Corinna's opinion on what happened after the Quidditch game. She asked her point blank after class. "As much as I am disappointed that Gryffindor is losing some of their best players," Corinna managed to say, trying to sound normal despite the fact that her jaw was clenched the entire time, "they should not have attacked Ma—Draco like that."

Corinna ran to the bathroom to Scourgify her mouth out.

Tuesday morning was their first lesson with Hagrid this year as he was inexplicably back. Corinna thought the lesson was fairly tame compared to some in the past, but it unnerved her that she couldn't see the creatures. This seemed to confuse Harry as he was put in charge of showing some of the students who hadn't seen death where the creature was they were supposed to observe.

"I didn't actually see the dementor take his soul," Corinna said, keeping it slightly vague on what he called Barty in her own head. "He died hours later, alone."

Harry just nodded, his mouth a thin line. She thought it was about her answer, but Corinna turned and saw that Umbridge had found the class and was there to inspect Hagrid. "Oh no," Hermione gasped. They had sat through a few of her inspections, with McGonagall's standing out to Corinna as the professor did not tolerate Umbridge acting like, well, an Umbitch.

Although Corinna didn't have a soft spot for Hagrid like Harry, Ron, and Hermione, she liked him well enough. Always had a kind thing to say whenever she said hello to him, and he wasn't the worst teacher. Sure, his lessons were rather lackluster, and he did assign a biting book during their third year, but she wouldn't want Hagrid sacked solely on the principle of the matter.

As she went around to the students (mostly the Slytherins, naturally, and skewing whatever the Gryffindors said anything somewhat positive), she was also mocking Hagrid's intelligence, which was making them grow angrier. Her leading questions had the desired effect as it made Hagrid lose confidence in himself as he started stammering and had a harder time coming up with the information about the thestrals.

A wide grin broke out as she approached Corinna. "What do you think of the lesson, Miss Crouch?"

Corinna froze. It was so much easier to be a double agent when it was just her and Umbridge talking after class. It was easier to pretend that what Corinna was saying wasn't the equivalent of smacking herself in the face. "Thestrals are interesting creatures," she said simply, knowing she had to quickly decide how to play this. She was never good at chess; having to think three steps ahead and have contingency plans for the contingency plans. "I did not know that there were any tamed ones before this lesson."

Umbridge shook her head as she marked something on her clipboard. Apparently, she hadn't caught on that Corinna was trying to save face in front of the people that Umbridge had asked her to spy on. "She is so dense," she muttered to Harry, Ron, and Hermione when Umbridge had moved on.

"You were damned either way," Hermione said, looking as if she wanted to hex Umbridge into oblivion. "And you played it wrong. She wanted you to show your true stripes, even if it meant we would distrust you."

"You reckon she suspects what Corinna is doing?" Harry asked.

"Let's hope not," Corinna said, refusing to look over at him. "Do you think she realized that the parchment was just a hoax?"

"We've been sending her messages just like the first, just coded jokes with different handwriting each time," said Hermione as Umbridge left the paddock looking as if she had won the Witch Weekly sweepstakes. "It's not going to stop the D.A. If anything, this confirms that we are doing the right thing. Anything that undermines what her and her precious Ministry are doing."

As the holidays approached, Corinna's initial excitement morphed into panic as she realized that she was so close to meeting her family. It felt strange. She used to be indifferent about holidays. Her family never did anything special. Corinna, Barty, and Winky used to sit around the wireless while Corinna read whatever caught her fancy while their father was locked in his office, no doubt working. The only thing they did outside the home was the Ministry's New Year's party, which was so stuffy and so boring to Corinna she usually ended up in the corner with the other kids that were dragged to those events. She didn't know what to expect with this new family. She supposed she should have bought something, but there wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend planned until the next term.

At least she had one last D.A. meeting to look forward to. Granted, it was just a review session, but Corinna appreciated it as her spell work could use some practice. It didn't help that Harry seemed to be hovering around where she was supposed to be freezing Terry, and she was losing concentration. To make things worse, he kept making eye contact with Cho, and jealously made her heart pound. Of course, Harry would have a thing for Cho. She was everything Corinna wasn't. Beautiful hair, cute button nose, no pimples to speak of.

"Er, Corinna?"

Terry tore her from her reverie. Her spell had gone wide, hitting Cho's partner. If only it had gone further to the left, she thought darkly. "Sorry, Marietta," she called out.

Marietta gave Corinna an annoyed look once she unfroze. She turned sharply back to Cho and whispered quickly.

"Just keep your mind on your wand," Terry said with his signature goofy smile, "instead of someone else's."

She was about to ask him what he meant by that, but Harry switched them onto stunning spells. Corinna and Terry observed first and then they switched to practicing. She did her best to focus, but she could constantly feel it whenever Harry looked in their direction.

Stop it, she scolded herself when she felt back onto the cushion from Terry's blow. He likes Cho. There's no way he could like someone like you.

"What's with you tonight?" Terry asked as they headed out of the room. Since it was before curfew, as long as there wasn't anyone around, they could leave as they would like. "You're normally not like this when he's around."

"What are you talking about?" said Corinna.

"Don't play dumb," said Terry, glaring. "I know you, Corinna. You kept looking at Potter."

"He's the teacher," Corinna reminded, but even that argument sounded weak to her.

"And you kept messing up around him? He's not that scary, even if his temper is a force to be reckoned with."

"You know my spell work is shoddy."

"Then how do you explain the Quidditch match?" When Corinna continued to look confused, he explained. "You were sitting when Gryffindor won. You had only jumped up when you saw something happen to Harry."

"Well, yeah, I wanted to know what was happening."

"Do you like the bloke or not, Crouch?"

Corinna did not like the blunt Terry. She was used to easy going, reassuring Terry. Not whatever this was.

"What if I do?" she asked in a small voice.

Terry softened slightly when he heard Corinna's tone. "I'm sorry. I was annoyed you were being dodgy. I shouldn't have been tetchy with you over something like this."

"Thanks," Corinna said with a sigh. "I just…he likes Cho. I can tell."

"He likes the bird whose old boyfriend he watched die?" he clarified. He put his arms around Corinna's shoulders as he nudged her over to the portrait to take her to Gryffindor Tower. "That's just a disaster waiting to happen."

"Thanks, Terry," said Corinna as she shoved his arm away. "Go solve a riddle. Have a good night."


	3. In Which Corinna Meets Her Family

The next morning, Corinna walked down the stairs with her bag slung over her shoulders when Hermione ran up to her. "Have you seen Ron or Harry?" she asked quickly. "They usually meet me, and we head down to breakfast together, but I haven't seen them yet."

"Hermione, I've been in the same room as you all night," Corinna said, although she had to admit that her dreams may have involved a certain bespectacled wizard. "Would they have gone down without you?"

"They only do that if we aren't talking," Hermione said, still looking concerned as she let herself get dragged by Corinna. "Or if they have quidditch practice, but Harry's not on the team and they don't practice this close to the holidays, anyway."

"We'll check the Great Hall. If they aren't there, we can ask Professor McGonagall."

The Great Hall was a dead end. Not only wasn't there Harry or Ron, but none of the Weasleys were there, and they were easy to spot thanks to their hair. They went up to the staff table and stopped in front of where McGonagall usually sat.

"Mr. Potter and the Weasleys were sent home," McGonagall explained without preamble, already knowing why Hermione and Corinna had approached. "There was an incident with Mr. Weasley, and he was sent to St. Mungo's." She glanced over at Umbridge who was not-so-subtly leaning in to listen in to what McGonagall was saying.

"What's this?" Umbridge demanded. "I did not authorize any students to leave before the official start of break."

"There was an emergency, Dolores," said McGonagall coolly. "And it was on Albus's request that they were allowed to visit their injured father."

"Not Potter," Umbridge said with a scowl.

"I have sent Mr. Potter's letters more times than not to the Weasley residence." McGonagall looked back over at Hermione and Corinna as if just realizing they were there. "You are dismissed. The train leaves the station at eleven."

The two of them were still going at it as Hermione and Corinna quickly retreated from the staff table. Hermione looked shaken at the news she received. It makes sense that she was also concerned about Mr. Weasley. "I just hope everything's alright," she said as they continued out of the hall when it was evidence Hermione was no longer interested in having breakfast. "But, St. Mungo's. That means it's fairly serious, especially if they had taken them out of school."

Corinna decided to stay with Hermione until they were supposed to set out to Hogsmeade Station, even if it was just sitting on her bed while Hermione paced nervously in their dorm room. Finally, it was time to leave. They grabbed their trunks and trudged down to the station with snow clutching to their hair and gear. It was odd getting a compartment for just the two of them when there was seven last time.

"You don't have to stay," Hermione said stiffly as they sat opposite each other. They let their cats out of their cages, and they merely tolerated each other. Crookshanks was content to sleep in the corner while Zelda insisted on trying to curl up with either girl. "If you want to meet up with Terry."

"His parents are picking him up in Hogsmeade," Corinna explained. "They are going to France since that is where Terry's sister is working."

"Alright," Hermione said with a slight nod. "I went to France once on holiday. It's quite nice. I'm sure he'll like it."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Corinna said as she looked out the window as they started away from the station.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked gently.

"Yeah, just…" She sighed heavily. "I guess I just realized that this will be my first holiday without my dad and brother."

"Oh." Another beat of silence. "Who will you be staying with?"

"I have some family on my mom's side," she explained. "I don't know them very well, but I guess they are excited to see me."

"Of course, they're family," said Hermione. "I was actually supposed to go skiing with my parents. But, with what happened, I'm not so sure. I'm lousy at it anyway."

Corinna just nodded as if she knew what skiing was. At some of the things that muggleborns mention, it is sometimes best to go along with it, or else you have to deal with explanations of things that they really don't know how to explain since it was so familiar to them. "Is it hard having parents who really aren't part of this world with you?"

"They try their best," Hermione admitted. "I think they just nod along whenever I talk about the things I study or the things I do with Harry and Ron. They are happy that I am doing well in my studies and that I am a prefect but there still seemed to be this…divide. Like they will never fully understand."

"I'm sorry if that sounded invasive," said Corinna.

"No, it's fine." For the first time that day, Hermione gave a slight smile. "In fact, I remember our first train ride to Hogwarts our first year. I kept asking you so many questions about the wizarding world. I think it's only fair you're also curious about the muggle world. What do you want to know?"

Corinna thought a moment before something came to mind. "I was on the London Underground over the summer and I saw this little boy with this rectangular device. I think it was tan in color, or at least mostly tan. It had a grey square he somehow put in it. He pressed buttons and the device acted like a picture, like it was moving, but it also made sound and he was getting annoyed with it."

Hermione laughed. "I think you're talking about a Gameboy. I don't even know where to begin explaining to you how those work. There is absolutely no magical equivalent." She thought a moment before asking, "Do you know what a television is?"

And that's how they stayed for the afternoon. It was a nice distraction for Hermione, and Corinna learned a little more about the world outside of where she lived. Just before they got to the platform, they gathered up their cats and trunks and headed out.

It was easy to spot Tonks with her bright pink hair. She veered in that direction, but so had Hermione. "Tonks, what are you doing here?"

"Wotcher, Hermione," Tonks greeted. "I'm not here on official business. I'm here on a family one."

Hermione looked between the two of them. "How are you related to Tonks?"

"Mum's side, like I said," Corinna said quickly.

"Okay, well, there's my parents," Hermione said, looking concerned. "Have a Happy Christmas."

"You too, Hermione." She had glanced back as she approached her parents and greeted them with a warm hug.

Tonks took Zelda from Corinna and they filed off the platform. Some muggles rushing around gave Tonks a second look, but for the most part didn't think twice. "You haven't told anyone who your mum really is, have you?"

"Harry knows," Corinna said with a shrug. "It's bad enough that the person they think it my brother is a Death Eater. How do you think people would react to find out that I am not only really his daughter, but my mum is a Death Eater and was sentenced to life in Azkaban for torturing one of my classmate's parents into insanity?"

"Yeah, don't really like claiming a lot of that part of the family," Tonks admitted. "There are a few good ones, like my mum and my cousin. And you, obviously." Corinna got a jolt when Tonks said that. "Have you ever done side-along apparition?"

"No," Corinna admitted.

"Lucky for you, it's part of my training." They left King's Cross and made their way to a secluded alley perpendicular to the street. "Just hold on. Don't want to end up falling to Merlin knows where." Corinna kept a tight grip on Tonks' arm and on her trunk. She felt like all the air was sucked out of her chest and she dared not move until the scenery around them changed from a London alley to a field with a house in the distance.

Corinna walked with Tonks up to the house. It was on the small side, but it seemed to be very homely. It was picturesque with the gently falling snow and smoke billowing out of the chimney. She could only hear her pounding heart as she approached the house, but there was a familiar hum of the wireless going and the strong smells of cooking.

"Mum, Dad," Tonks said as she strolled right into the house, which made sense since this was her parents' place. She knelt down and opened the door to Zelda's carrier. "We're here."

Although she had only seen her mother in old black and white photographs from ancient copies of the Daily Prophet, she had a good sense of what she would look like in the flesh. She just did not expect Andromeda Tonks to be almost the exact replica. The most notable difference that, where Bellatrix Lestrange had a wild, deranged look in her eyes, Andromeda had nothing but kindness. Her hair was also lighter as, in the newspaper photograph, Bellatrix's hair looked black. She beamed when she saw Corinna and immediately enveloped her into a hug, despite the fact that she had flour on the front of her. "Sorry," she said as she pulled away. "It's just…" There was a glint of tears in her eyes.

"Mum," Tonks said, shaking her head. "It's okay. She's safe."

"I know." Corinna wondered if she saw the little toddler that was taken away when her sister was sent to Azkaban. "You don't look much like her, but you also don't look like Rudolphus, either. But Dumbledore reassured me you are the same child."

"There was also truth serum involved when my, er…my father was interrogated." It still felt foreign to refer to him as such. "I also found the forged birth certificate my grandfather had."

"I'm sure he got rid of any evidence of your true parentage," said Andromeda. "But it does not matter. You are here. You are alive. And you are safe. Now, let's get you some supper. I know that they do not feed you a proper meal on that train. Dora, get your father from the attic. He's been running amuck in there all afternoon claiming to be looking for the Christmas decorations." When Tonks headed up the stairs, Andromeda followed suit with her arm around Corinna's shoulders. It was almost as if she was afraid that Corinna would disappear if she let go. "I'll show you where you will be staying. It's not much, but I hope you will be comfortable."

It was evidently a guest room with pale yellow walls, a plain wardrobe and bookshelf full of the ugly tchotchkes that were given to them in the past. The covers were a hideous floral pattern, and the carpeting was well-worn. "It's brilliant," Corinna reassured. "Thank you."

"'Brilliant' is not the word I would use to describe Ted's great-aunt's bedspread," Andromeda said with a slight chuckle. "Oh, Ted." They turned to see a man descending another set of stairs with Tonks behind him. "This is Corinna."

"Pleased to meet yah." Ted Tonks vigorously shook Corinna's hand, his being filmy from rummaging through the dusty attic. "I hope you brought your appetite. Dromeda had made more food this past week than she had the entire time we've been married."

"I figured Dora could bring some over to the Weasleys," Andromeda said as they all headed back downstairs. "How is Arthur, dear?"

"He's expected to make a full recovery," Tonks reassured. "I asked someone else from the Order to take the family and Harry over to visit him at St. Mungo's. They understood why I needed the time off."

"What's the Order?" Corinna asked. "You mentioned them when we first talked at the Three Broomsticks."

"Dumbledore said that it was alright to mention it," Tonks said as she carefully selected a biscuit from the platter on the table. "It's secretive, but not to the point that I have to kill you if I say anything. ("Dora!" Andromeda hissed under her breath.) Its full name is the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore founded it when You-Know-Who was first in power, and he brought it back since…well, you know what happened at the end of last year. Anyway, since the Ministry is doing bugger-all about You-Know-Who being back, we're doing what we can despite our small numbers."

"Can anyone join?" Corinna asked, figuring Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be a part of it in a heartbeat.

"Anyone in their majority," said Tonks, "so you might want to hold off in submitting an application. Besides," she gave a slight smirk, "heard you were busy learning Defensive magic from Harry Potter."

Corinna sputtered and Tonks laughed harder, nearly knocking a glass to the ground, but she stopped it before it shattered. "I think it's brilliant," she said. "Mind you, I should technically be telling you off for defying the Ministry like that since I work for them, but that is exactly the type of thing I would be a part of in school if she were around when I was there."

"How often did I get an owl from Professor Sprout because you got into trouble?" Andromeda asked when she went over to check something on the stove.

"If you didn't get an owl every week, you wrote asking if I was still alive," said Tonks without missing a beat. "I got the necessary OWLs and NEWTs to become an Auror, so I think I did something right." She handed a biscuit to Corinna and she nibbled on it. "Never got me the prefect spot, but who would want to do that? It takes the fun out of everything."

"I didn't get it either," Corinna said with a shrug. "It is annoying when my friend, Terry Boot, can't hang out because he has to roam the halls or whatever. He's a Ravenclaw prefect." She picked at a crumb before it could fall to the floor.

"It's alright," Ted reassured as he grabbed a biscuit from the tray as well. "The prefects always got a load of it from everyone else, even back in my time. In fact, I remember one time that I had—"

"Let's not give her any ideas," Andromeda said dismissively. "Dora, set the table. Ted, did you manage to find the Christmas decorations after spending all afternoon up there?"

"I found them, but I did a fair bit of organizing up there," said Ted.

"We won't be able to find anything," said Andromeda, shaking her head. "Well, go grab them. We'll decorate after dinner."

"Is there anything I can help with?" asked Corinna.

"Yes, feed that ruddy cat of yours so she'll quit trying to get the roast."

Corinna found it almost odd how easily she seemed to fit into the family. Although it still confused her at times, she at least found a place within their routine.

Andromeda and Ted were both Healers at St. Mungo's. They occasionally had overlapping shifts, so it left Corinna alone for a few hours. The only thing they asked was that she didn't leave, but she was welcome to do whatever she would like. She would be nice and make sure things were cleaned up so they didn't have to worry about it at the end of the day, but it also gave her time to do some owl-order shopping for Christmas. Tonks hardly stayed at home, usually opting to stay in London so she was closer to the Ministry and to this Order, whatever they were doing. There wasn't much she could talk about, but she gave them updates about Mr. Weasley who was recovering slowly, but was hoping to be out of the hospital by Christmas, which was quickly approaching.

It seemed to be a holiday that the family very much liked to celebrate. The house had transformed the night Corinna arrived with baubles hanging from garland and a Christmas tree. Ted had charmed a toy train to move about the house, but it easily stayed out of everyone's way whenever they were walking. The snow continued to fall outside, and tea seemed to be poured in this house by the jug.

They liked to tell stories about their family. Just the three of them. Corinna noticed that they didn't talk much about Andromeda's family, the Blacks. If she asked, they would probably give her some answers. The problem was that she didn't know what she wanted to know, so she didn't know what she should ask.

The days leading up to Christmas Eve seemed to blend together for Corinna. But unlike those days where all she did was go to class, study, and worry about her family, she spent it with people who seemed to genuinely like her company. They would ask her about her life in Hogwarts, and she did notice that they never asked her about her home life before (or after, for that matter) the events of last year. She was glad it focused more on which subjects she enjoyed and what she could possibly want to do with them some day.

As a second year picking out her electives, she didn't know what she had wanted out of life. She just picked a couple things that were recommended to her either because they were interesting or because they would be easy. She knew before the end of next term, she would have a meeting with McGonagall about what she wanted to do with her life and help her create a map on how to get there. But, what did she want to do? She was a fairly good potioneer, but she didn't know if she wanted to make that exclusively her career once she got out of Hogwarts.

Christmas morning, Corinna woke to a small pile of presents at the foot of her bed and her heart sank slightly. She did not expect to get anything as she thought the Tonks family were generous enough for just taking her in so she wouldn't be alone at Hogwarts or at Crouch Manor.

The first that Corinna unwrapped were a couple of books about potion-making (So that's why they were asking me those question, she thought), with some of them covering material she wouldn't even learn for her NEWTs. There was a nice quill set and matching hat, scarf, and gloves. The label on them said that they were never-wet so they wouldn't succumb to the winter chill as easily. Those were from Tonks.

There was the soft clanking of teacups onto their saucers as Corinna crept out of her bedroom, shrugging on her dressing gown. She didn't think she would meet people who would consistently get up earlier than ever her father did. Despite the fact that the early rays of dawn were just lightening the sky, they had already been up for a while, simply enjoying their tea and reading through the Christmas edition of the Prophet. Tonks had came home the night before as she had managed to get the time off for Christmas. She mentioned doing something for the order the day of, but wanted to make sure that she was there for Christmas Eve dinner.

With a steadying sigh, Corinna stepped down the stairs. Despite the creak, Ted and Andromeda did not look up. The first few times she had joined them in the morning, they had looked up and leapt up to help her with whatever she needed, even if she didn't need anything. Now, they were used to her presence and let her fix her own cup of tea in the morning as she knew where the cream and sugar were.

"Happy Christmas, Corinna," said Andromeda as Corinna rejoined them from the kitchen. "Did you like your presents?"

"They are lovely," Corinna reassured as she sat down on the couch opposite them. She noticed Ted looking over the pocket watch that she had owl-ordered for him the very next day he had talked endlessly about the time pieces in his collection. Andromeda had her favored quidditch team's gear folded neatly on the armrest of the sofa. Corinna had gotten Tonks the same thing, but simply got her preferred team instead. According to Ted, when those two teams compete in a match, the house can become a very hostile place until it is over. "I hope I did alright with picking out your presents."

"You didn't have to get us anything," Andromeda insisted. "You being here is a gift enough, but they are still appreciated."

"You're welcome," she said softly and then focused on her tea. "What do you normally do for Christmas?"

"We actually go visit my family today." Ted was Muggle-born. She knew that the Black family, like many of those who were prideful of their pureblood and wanted to keep it that way, probably did not take too kindly to the union. Although she did not ask about it outright, she deduced by the fact that all the family pictures were of just the three of them or the stand-still portraits created by muggle cameras, that they had little to no contact with the Blacks-whoever was left. "We wanted to talk to you about that."

"We are so happy that you are here with us, Corinna," said Andromeda as she set her tea down. "I know it has been confusing for you, and the last thing we are expecting you to do is sit around with even more people you really don't know. That's why we were wondering, if it is okay with you, if you went with Dora while she took the Weasleys and Harry Potter to visit Arthur in the hospital this afternoon. At least this way, you would know the people you were spending time with today."

Corinna's heart thudded in her chest as she choked down an accidental large gulp of tea. "I suppose that would be alright," she said. "As long as everyone else is okay if I tag along."

"Of course they would," Ted reassured. "Besides, with the Weasley brood, they would hardly notice you are there."

"Edward!" scolded Andromeda.

"Well, it's true, Dromeda. We knew it was going to happen even back at school, remember? And they probably would have started then if they weren't constantly caught whenever they tried to sneak off and be alone."

Corinna silently wondered how red Ron would turn if he heard them say that about his parents. She would have loved to see that.

After a huge breakfast that could rival one put on in the Great Hall, Corinna and Tonks (who had gotten up by the smell of frying bacon) dressed warmly. Tonks had a hard time putting on earmuffs as she had changed her hair to be dark green and piled her hair in a way that resembled a pine tree. "Hey, you're wearing the stuff I bought you," she said. "Mum said to get you something practical. Apparently dungbombs aren't practical."

"As much as I love a well-timed prank," said Corinna, "I will leave it to the professionals."

"Fred and George?"

Corinna nodded. "Fred and George."

"Speaking of," Tonks said as she held out a piece of paper. "Read this."

Confused, Corinna took the piece of paper and unfolded it. The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. "Why do I…?"

Tonks took the piece of paper back and set it on fire. "Dumbledore's secret keeper," Tonks explained. "He wrote it so you can get in."

Corinna vaguely remembered learning the theory behind such things. They were designed that no one but the person deemed "secret keeper" were the only ones who can disclose the location of something. Others can know about it, but they cannot tell anyone. Corinna did not know what happened to people who tried to say, but she did not want to find out.

They had walked a few meters from the house and then Tonks used side-along apparition to get Corinna back to London. She didn't know the neighborhood very well, but she had to admit that it did seem like a perfect hiding spot for a group of people to plot against You-Know-Who.

They had stepped up the stairs. "Just be quiet," she suggested. "There's a grouchy portrait that will start screaming if we—oh, no."

As she was walking in, Tonks and stumbled against a coat rack and struggled to stay upright, but it knocked against the wall. Behind a large curtain, a woman started shouting. "Mudbloods and traitors. Defiling the ancient and—"

"Shut up you wretched woman!" a man with black hair shouted as he came from what looked like the kitchen door to close the curtains again. It took a few moments, but the portrait eventually stopped shouting obscenities. It was just the right about of time for Corinna to look over the man and start backing up towards the door in horror.

"Oh, sorry, should have warned you," Tonks whispered as she grabbed Corinna's arm before she could knock into the umbrella stand and start the portrait up again. "Corinna, meet our definitely-not-a-murderer cousin, Sirius Black."

In hindsight, it seemed oddly silly to Corinna for not considering that Sirius Black was part of her family considering their third year was plagued by his escape from Azkaban and, subsequently, his secondary escape after Ministry officials had captured him on Hogwarts grounds. Unsurprisingly, it all lead back to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

It was hard to believe that the man standing before her was her blood relation in some way as cousin could mean just about anything when it came to extended family.

"He didn't actually murder thirteen people," Tonks reassured as she nudged Corinna to follow her down the hall and back the way Sirius had come. "I'll explain later."

The kitchen table was full of people that she knew from school or was obvious to be a Weasley. Except for a couple. "Professor Lupin? Professor Moody?"

"Hello, Corinna," Lupin said with an easy smile. "It's been awhile."

"And why do you lot constantly call me professor?" Moody asked. "I didn't do a lick of teaching."

Guilt settled in Corinna gut as her brother was the reason why Moody was locked in a trunk for an entire school year. But, before she could say anything, a stout woman came from behind her and nearly shoved her onto the bench.

"Since I had to tag along, I thought I would drag Corinna along with me," Tonks explained. "Better than hang out with a bunch of muggles."

"Just having a spot of breakfast," Mrs. Weasley said as she was already loading up Corinna plate. She tried to protest that they had already ate, but Tonks gave her a subtle shake of the head, and she smartly kept her mouth shut.

Now that she was here, Corinna wished she had come up with an excuse to stay at the house. All of her classmates, which included all the Weasleys and Harry and Hermione (who must have flaked out on skiing with her parents), were looking at her in a confused manner. The conversations were muted as Corinna tried to choke down some more food.

Hermione kept looking at Corinna in a similar look that she would give a particularly difficult question during class. Harry didn't look her in the eye, focused on his food as Mrs. Weasley kept piling food on his plate even before he finished the previous helping. Corinna was more than relieved when she didn't seem to do the same to her. As soon as they were all done, Hermione grabbed Corinna's arm before she could say or do anything else.

The question died on Corinna's lips when they had gotten into the hall and no one wanted to wake the horrid portrait again. They snuck up the stairs and Corinna expected to be dragged to wherever they were sleeping, but they entered what, at one point, would have been a drawing room. It had seen better days, but the telltale smell of magical cleaner meant that someone had been in here fairly recently.

"I cannot figure this out," Hermione said as she stood in front of a tapestry of the Black family. It went back for generations, and Corinna was easily lost. "I have not been able to find Claudia Crouch, née Zima anywhere. Nor have then been any Crouches or Zimas in recent history, according to the tapestry."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked, looking confused. Harry pretended to be very interested in what was in a cabinet.

"I am trying to figure out how you are related to Tonks," Hermione said. "It has been driving me crazy. It can't be from her father's side since he's Muggle-born and you're pureblood. So, it would have to be on her mother's side, the Blacks. But, if you were related in a significant enough way to spend Christmas with them, you should be on here. Or, at the very least, some sort of indication of your mother, as I had considered she was disowned by Sirius's mother since her husband put away Death Eaters without a trial."

Corinna was used to the lies. They were a necessary evil her entire life. In fact, she couldn't remember a point before where she didn't have to constantly lie or evade the truth. But she knew Hermione would never let up, and any excuse Corinna could come up with seemed flimsy at best. She glanced back at Harry and he caught her eye. With a huff, she straightened slightly and looked at the tapestry. Her eyes passed over the burned mark of Andromeda and the intact one of Narcissa. She gave a slight jolt when she saw a line connecting from Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange. "I'm right here," she said as she pointed to the spot that said "Carina Lestrange."

Before Hermione could ask any of the myriad of questions she had, Corinna explained what happened when her brother—no, father—was under the influence of the truth serum. She finally admitted out loud that she was the child of infidelity and that her father—really, grandfather—had forged documents to the point that he had changed Corinna's name and made her believe that she was his child for fifteen years.

"So, you're the kid of a couple of You-Know-Who's nutters," said Ron. "You don't support them, do you?"

"Merlin, no," said Corinna at the same time as Hermione hissed out Ron's name. "I hope she continues to rot away in Azkaban for the rest of her life. I'm not about to search her out so I can join in on whatever fun You-Know-Who has been up to."

"But how do we know for certain?" asked Ron.

"Because I was there," Harry said, finally speaking up. "I was there when Corinna heard the truth from Crouch. She looked absolutely disgusted. Besides, look at what I have been dealing with. Do you think I'm on his side?"

Corinna didn't know what he was talking about, but Ron seemed to as he shook his head. She thought about asking, but it didn't feel like the right time. "I am not asking you to trust me," she said. "All I ask is that you don't go around telling everyone who my mother really is. You lot are the only ones who know besides the Tonkses and those who witnessed my…I don't even know what the hell to call him anymore."

The four of them jumped up when the door opened to reveal the youngest Weasley. "What are you guys doing up here?" She waltzed in with the twins on her heels. "Mum's having another fit about Percy. I vote we hide out here until it passes."

They went to visit Mr. Weasley later that afternoon after Christmas lunch, escorted by Lupin, Moody, and Tonks. Another order member by the name of Mundungus Fletcher showed up while they were all getting ready. He managed to borrow a car as the Underground did not run on Christmas Day and there were too many of them to try to side-along apparate. Mrs. Weasley made a snide comment about how it might be stolen, but it was charmed with an Enlarging spell so the inside could easily accommodate everyone comfortably, so everyone seemed to look the other way about the legality of the vehicle.

Corinna had been to St. Mungo's a handful of times, mostly for her usual checked ups. She never even broken a bone or had a large enough cut that it needed to be healed by stronger magic than Episkey. It was still the normal storefront to make muggles think it is a defunct department store. One at a time, they walked through the window and into the reception area. It was decorated for the festivities, for which Corinna had never seen before.

As it seemed that the lot had been there already, they knew their way to Mr. Weasley's room that he shared with another wizard who seemed to be in some sort of shock. They all greeted him and some handed him out presents. He seemed a bit cagey, especially when Mrs. Weasley was asking him about why his bandages were changed a day early. After he admitted that a trainee healer agreed to try a muggle remedy (stitches), the younger members of the group decided that it was best to go get a cup of tea from the tearoom on the top floor.

"Typical Dad, said Ginny as Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Corinna trailed down the corridor. "Stitches…"

"Well, you know, they do work well on non-magical wounds," Hermione pointed out. "I suppose something in the snake's venom dissolves them or something. I wonder where the tearoom is?"

"Fifth floor," Harry said automatically.

The continued up the stairs as they made their way up to the tearoom. "What floor is this?" Corinna asked.

"I think it's the fifth," said Hermione, but she didn't sound wholly convinced.

"Nah, it's the fourth," said Harry. "One more."

Everyone stopped on the landing as everyone's eyes moved towards the inset window on the double doors. The sign read "Spell Damage."

"Blimey," said Ron, staring at the man in the window with the vacant smile.

Hermione gasped. "Professor Lockhart!" she said breathlessly.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from their second year (Ginny's first) opened the door. "Well, hello there!" he greeted. "I expect you'd like my autograph, would you?"

"Hasn't changed much, has he?" Harry muttered. He said it lowly enough that only Ginny and Corinna could hear, so they tried to stifle their giggles.

"How are you, Professor?" asked Ron, sounding guilty. Only he, Harry, and Lockhart had gone down to the Chamber of Secrets, so naturally everyone knew what happened. It was Ron's malfunctioning wand that caused Lockhart to lose him memories, but it didn't seem to not have changed his personality much. He was attempting to erase their memories so that he could take the glory (or at least get out of that situation). He was stripped of his accolades and accomplishments as it came out that he was taking the glory from those who actually accomplished such things. Corinna thought that his class was a complete joke, but much more entertaining than Quirrel's classes.

"I'm very well indeed, thank you," said Lockhart. "Now, how many autographs would you like? I can do joined-up writing now, you know."

"We don't want any at the moment, thanks," said Ron. "Professor, should you be wandering around the corridors? Shouldn't you be in a ward?"

Lockhart adverted his gaze to Harry and studied him closely, making Harry visibly uncomfortable. "Haven't we met?"

"Yeah, we have," said Harry hesitantly. "You used to teach us at Hogwarts, remember?"

"Teach? Me? Did I?" The smile reappeared as if it never left. "Taught you everything you know, I expect, did I? Well, how about those autographs, then? Shall we say a round dozen, you can give them to all your little friends and then nobody will be left out!"

It was almost a relief when someone poked their head out of the door at the end of the corridor. "Gilderoy, you naught boy, where have you wandered off to?" A motherly Healer headed down towards the group. "Oh, Gilderoy, you've got visitors! How lovely, and on Christmas Day, too! Do you know, he never gets visitors, poor lamb, and I can't think why, he's such a sweetie, aren't you?"

"We're doing autographs," Gilderoy told the Healer with another glittering smile. "They want loads of them, won't take no for an answer! I just hope we've got enough photographs."

"Listen to him," the healer dotted over Lockhart as she ushered him back towards the door and beckoned the others to follow her. She explained to the others what happened to him as she got him back into the ward, despite their albeit halfhearted attempts to continue on their way to the tearoom. They looked at each other helplessly as they were led to a ward. After a simple "Alohomora," they followed her inside. "This is our long-term residents' ward for permanent spell damage, you know. Of course, with intensive remedial potions and charms and a bit of luck, we can produce some improvement." With that, she left them to finish passing out presents. Lockhart was signing them and placed them in Ginny's lap to put them in envelopes, much to her chagrin. Corinna was only half paying attention to the healer as she passed out presents to the other patients, announcing loudly what they received and how lovely it was. "Oh, Mrs. Longbottom, are you leaving already?"

Five heads immediately swiveled over when they heard the name of one of their peers. A formidable looking witch stood in front of some drawn curtains with Neville trailing behind her. Corinna's heart sank when she realized who was behind the curtains. "Neville?" said Ron without any tact. "It's us, Neville!" He stood up from where they were seated by Lockhart's bed. "Have you seen? Lockhart's here. Who've you been visiting?"

When Neville hadn't said anything, his grandmother asked, "Friends of yours, Neville, dear?" He looked like he was trying to apparate to be anywhere else. "Ah, yes," his grandmother continued, looking right at Harry. "Yes, yes. I know who you are, of course. Neville speaks most highly of you."

"Er, thanks," Harry said and accepted the hand Mrs. Longbottom had held out.

"And you two are clearly Weasleys," said Mrs. Longbottom as she looked over Ron and Ginny. "Yes, I know your parents—not well, of course—but fine people, fine people…Speaking of fine people. You must be Corinna Crouch. I will always be thankful for what your father did. Allow me to give you my condolences now. The Prophet didn't say when or where his funeral was, or else I would have gone…and you must be Hermione Granger?" Hermione looked surprised by that. "Yes, Neville's told me all about you. Helped him out of a few sticky spots, haven't you. He's a good boy but he hasn't got his father's talent, I'm afraid."

"What?" said Ron, as everyone's eyes averted to the closed-off curtains. Corinna wanted to join Neville wherever he would rather be, even if it was her own personal hell. Because her grandfather may have sentenced those who tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom to the point of insanity, but those people were, unfortunately, her real parents. "Is that your dad down in the end, Neville?"

"What's this?" said Mrs. Longbottom sharply, turning back to Neville. "Haven't you told your friends about your parents, Neville?" When he shook his head, she continued. "Well, it's nothing to be ashamed of! You should be proud, Neville, proud! They didn't give their health and their sanity so their only son would be ashamed of them, you know."

"I'm not ashamed," Neville mumbled, looking at his feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world right then.

"Well, you've got a funny way of showing it! My son and his wife," Mrs. Longbottom turned to the five of them, "were tortured into insanity by You-Know-Who's followers." Everyone reacted in a shocked manner, except for Corinna and Harry, who both looked lost. "They were Aurors, you know, and very well respected within the wizarding community. Highly gifted, the pair of them. Well, we'd better get back. Very nice to have met you all."

Neville didn't look any of them in the eye as he shuffled past. The door closed at the end of the ward and the five of them were oddly silent for a few beats. "I never knew," said Hermione.

"Nor did I," said Ron and Ginny shook her head.

They all looked at Harry and Corinna. Harry looked at Corinna. She just gave him a slight nod. She didn't want to be the one to say it, but he might as well tell them. Whatever snide remarks they could say about her parentage can't be worse than the guilt she felt over something she had nothing to do with.

"I did," said Harry. "Dumbledore told me but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone…that's what Bellatrix Lestrange got sent to Azkaban for, using the Cruciatus Curse on Neville's parents until they lost their minds."

Corinna was at least glad that Ron and Hermione hadn't commented about Bellatrix being her mother so she didn't also have to include Ginny in the ever-growing list of people who know the worst things about her. In fact, there was only silence until the forgotten Lockhart piped up, "Look, I didn't learn joined-up writing for nothing, you know!"

Corinna was relieved when they had met back up with the others and Tonks told her that she received an Patronus from Ted saying that they were back early (she also mentioned something about a grouchy great-uncle, but Corinna wasn't paying attention). It was easy for her to say goodbye to the others and they side-along apparated once they left the hospital.

The remainder of Christmas with the Tonkses was quiet. They were ones who preferred to put on the wireless and do a quiet activities while drinking tea. She tried to read one of her new potions books, but her mind kept wandering away from the page, both mentally and physically it seemed as Ted eventually said, "You have been staring at the wall for five minutes, Corinna. What's on your mind?"

She looked over at Ted and Tonks who were in a surprisingly heated game of chess. They had asked Corinna if she wanted to join in, but she was lousy at the game. She left that to the likes of Ron who would not shut up about how he had gotten past McGonagall's enchanted chess pieces at the end of their first year. Andromeda, like her, had opted to read and sat on the opposite couch.

"It's nothing," Corinna mumbled as she turned her attention back to the book.

"Does it have anything to do with how quiet you lot were after you got back from the tearoom?" Tonks may have been carefree with her pink hair and cool attitude, but she was still a trained Auror.

Corinna swallowed thickly as she closed the book without marking the page she was on. She hadn't retained anything to make it relevant. "We didn't make it to the tearoom," she admitted softly. "We were sidetracked to the spell damage ward where we saw Frank and Alice Longbottom."

A hush fell over the already most-quiet room. Andromeda closed her book as well and went to sit down next to Corinna. She steeled herself as she looked to find the right things to say. "I know this conversation was going to happen sooner or later," she admitted. "I just wanted to make sure you were ready for this. Maybe I should have mentioned it sooner."

"I first wanted to say that I came to terms with who my family was years ago," said Andromeda. "I never agreed with them, especially as many of my family supported what You-Know-Who was doing. I kept my mouth shut until Ted proposed to me after we graduated from Hogwarts. They would never have allowed such a union. I was supposed to marry someone of pureblood status, even if it meant I wasn't happy. These are the sort of people we are unfortunately related to. But, I had learned after I left was that, their thoughts and opinions did not define who I was. I did not care that Ted was Muggle-born, but they disowned me for it, and it was the best and worst day of my life when I walked out of my family. I would not do anything differently. I was willing to still have a relationship with them, but they weren't willing to meet me halfway." She sighed heavily and placed her hand on Corinna's knee. "I suppose what I am trying to say is that we cannot change who our family is. That is something we have to live with until the day we die. But what we decide to do on this Earth is something we can control. We forge our own path, Corinna. We aren't defined by what other people have done or will do, even if we are related to them."

"So, I shouldn't feel guilty because of what my mom did," said Corinna in a soft voice. "I should instead focus my efforts into doing what I think is right."

"I guess I should also say that not everyone is going to think that way," said Andromeda. "There are those who are going to lump us with everyone else just because of our name. The Longbottoms may never like you, but that is okay. They have been through enough, and it isn't on us to change their opinions. I used to have Alice and Augusta over for tea from time to time, but after what my sister did to Alice, I was not about to invade in Augusta's space, even if I wasn't the one who raised the wand."

Corinna didn't really considered Neville a friend, but he was a fellow D.A. member, and they did sit next to each other in their various classes together so they weren't alone. "I think I understand," she said softly.

"While we're on the topic," said Andromeda, "is there anything you would like to know? Our family has a dark history."

"How did you and Ted meet?" Corinna asked, as she did not really care about her mother or the Blacks. She wanted to know about Ted, Andromeda, and Tonks. "I know you were in Hogwarts together."

Corinna's book sat unopened for the rest of the evening as she listened to the light but varied history of the family she cared about.

The rest of the holidays passed by much too quickly for Corinna's taste. She wasn't just fitting into their routine, she felt like she was now a part of it. She helped with dinner, and even offered to make it herself a couple of times, but Andromeda intervened because of how slowly Corinna worked since she couldn't use magic. It was fine with her. She almost preferred working with them.

The night before Corinna was to take the Hogwarts Express back to school, her and Andromeda made roasted chicken with various roasted vegetables and Corinna's first attempt at making bread from scratch. They only had kind words to say, even if they had a hard time getting past the crust and Ted more butter on it than what should have been necessary.

Tonks even managed to get the evening off as it seemed that the Auror's office was busy. Corinna picked at her vegetables, slightly nervous about what she was about to ask.

"So, I have been thinking," she said during a lull in the conversation, which was mostly Andromeda and Tonks discussing quidditch standings. "If it is alright with you, I would like to come back for the summer holidays."

"Of course," Andromeda said. After their conversation on Christmas, she seemed relieved that Corinna was being more accepting of their love and affection. "We were actually going to suggest the Easter holidays, but we figured you wanted that time for studying for your OWLs." Corinna just nodded in agreement, realizing just how close the tests were. "Is there anything you need to grab from your house? We can go to London early tomorrow and we can bring back whatever you might need."

Corinna thought about her trunk that was already packed. It already had all the clothes that fit her, and she didn't really care about anything that she left at what she would soon call the old house. "We don't have to," she reassured as she speared a carrot. "I have everything I need."

For the first time ever, Corinna was not looking forward to going back to Hogwarts. It was nice to be surrounded by people who wanted her, and she was not looking forward to the mounting work or Umbridge who was going to keep harassing her about spying on Harry and the others. Hogwarts was no longer the escape she always looked forward to whenever she was trapped in that manor.

"In that case, you can join me when I take Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys to the Platform tomorrow," Tonks suggested. As much as Corinna did not look forward to seeing them, she remembered Andromeda's words. She would just have to accept that people were going to treat her differently now that they know the truth.

Andromeda looked like she wanted to suggest something else, but kept quiet. "There's something else," Corinna mumbled. "I know it's just…well, it seems silly, actually. Would you be alright if I started calling you aunt and uncle? I know it's just a formality, but…it just seems like the right thing to call you."

"We would be honored," Ted said with an easy smile. "I wanted to suggest it right away, but Dromeda thought we should ease into this whole family thing."

Andromeda looked at Tonks sharply and she rolled her eyes. "And I suppose you can call me Dora. But if you call me Nymphadora…"

"Dora works for me," said Corinna. Them talking about names drew something up from her memory. "Actually, you remember how you mentioned that you didn't even know my name, which is why you had a hard time finding me?" Tonks—no, Dora—nodded. "Well, apparently I was put on the Black family tapestry. I saw it in Grimmauld Place. My name was Carina."

"Is that what you want us to call you?" Aunt Andromeda asked, keeping her face neutral.

"No," she said firmly. "Corinna is just fine." Although it was still the name her lying grandfather gave her, it was better than the name her mother gave her.


	4. In Which Teachers Get Sacked

They woke to a cold dawn and Corinna had double-checked to make sure that everything was packed. She didn't notice how many of her belongings had become scattered throughout the house as she usually kept things contained to her own room. She would have forgotten the book she was currently reading if Uncle Ted hadn't found it on the end table by Corinna's favorite reading spot.

Corinna and Dora braved the cold and apparated back outside Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Mrs. Weasley was fussing over her children, and Harry and Hermione might as well be lumped in there at this point. "Right, you lot," Dora called out. She was escorting them along with Remus on the short walk to King's Cross. It was an oddly quiet stroll to the station. They hung around the platform until it was safe for all of them to cross the barrier. "Have a good term," Dora called to them.

"Harry," said Lupin, "please do try during your lessons."

"What lessons?" Corinna asked when they got onto the train and found a compartment. They surprisingly managed to find one that wasn't occupied, but the twins broke off to find their friend, Lee, and Ginny broke off to find her friends. Terry had gotten back to the castle a couple days prior when he got back from France, so Corinna stayed with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as she had no where else really to go.

Harry looked conflicted a moment before he said, "Remedial potions."

Corinna's brows raised in surprise. "Snape is volunteering to give you extra lessons? If you were doing that bad, why not ask me or Hermione for help."

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't be doing this," Harry said with gritted teeth. Hermione looked like she wanted to say something else, but Ron nudged her with his elbow, and she remained silent.

In fact, the four of them remained silent for the entire trip back to Hogwarts. They didn't even talk about what they saw over Christmas, which Corinna was glad for. Maybe things wouldn't be completely different. At least, it would be easier to pretend that things haven't changed.

But, it wouldn't be that easy. Once they had gotten back to Hogsmeade and trudged up the drive back to the castle, unease settled in her gut. She took her trunk back up to the dormitory and immediately left without unpacking. She checked in the library, but Terry wasn't there. She thought he might be in the Ravenclaw dormitory where she can't reach him, but she found him in the Great Hall, red face from being outside with some of the others who had either come back early or hadn't left in the first place. "Hey, Corinna," he greeted. "How was your Christmas?"

Corinna was not in the mood for small talk, but she talked about spending time with her family, and he relaxed quite a bit when she admitted that she would be spending the summer holidays with them. "Is Corinna going straight? Are you not going to lie anymore?"

"Well," she looked conflicted. Although no one was really paying attention to them, it doesn't mean they wouldn't be overheard. "Can we…um…" She motioned with her head towards the grand doors leading to the hall.

"Yeah," said Terry. They climbed off the bench and walked out of the Great Hall. The castle was alive with students as they took the chance to hang out and relax as the new term started the next day. As it was too cold and windy to enjoy a walk outside, they opted to walk in a circle around one of the upstairs corridors.

"What happened?" said Terry once they were semi-alone. At least, as alone as you could get unless you were looking for a place to snog. And, as Luna pointed out, even then you aren't guaranteed privacy. "Was your family not what they expected."

"They were better than I expected," said Corinna. She spent a little time gushing about her aunt, uncle, and cousin, which put Terry even more at ease. Maybe she hadn't realized how much he was worried about her home life. "However, there is something I need to tell you. I should have told you sooner, but I only recently came to terms with it."

Corinna told Terry the truth about her, and she felt like a weight was lifted off her chest. She didn't even care what he thought, she just needed to tell the one near-constant she has had throughout all this. He only interrupted once, but that was to tell a group of second years to quit running in the corridor. The only thing she didn't tell him was that Neville's parents were her mother's victims. It wasn't her place to pass that information around, even to Terry.

"Shite, Corinna," said Terry after she told her tale. He ran a hand through his curly hair, looking at a loss as to what to say. "Yeah, I can see why you had to come to terms with that."

They walked a few paces in silence before Corinna spoke up. "I wouldn't blame you if you hate me for who my real parents are."

"Don't underestimate me, Crouch," said Boot without any sort of malice. "It will change things, only because that's how it works. But as long as you don't start hating my parents, we'll be good."

"Why would I hate your parents?" asked Corinna.

"They're both muggleborn, remember?" Corinna vaguely remembered Terry being concerned during their second year when muggleborns were being petrified. She pointed out that he technically wasn't muggleborn since his parents had magic, but he didn't know what else to consider himself since his magical lineage only goes back one generation on both sides of his family.

"Again, why would I hate your parents?"

"You are such a pain in the arse, Crouch," said Terry as they continued down the hall. "Hey, where the hell did you get that broom?" A group of first years had managed to get ahold of a broom and were taking turns flying it over the staircases. Corinna left Terry to deal with his prefect duties.

Going back to classes the next day was surprisingly difficult for Corinna. All their professors were doubling down now that they were entering the new year and O.W.L.s were just a handful of months away. The D.A. members were all itching to get back to possibly the only lessons that everyone looked forward to. Corinna even noticed a couple of people clutching their coins as if that would bring about the date and time for the next meeting that much sooner. Even with how much work was getting piled on already, at least she felt a bit better than she had last term. Terry knew her secret, she had a family she wasn't embarrassed about, and she had the D.A. to look forward to, whenever that would occur. Even when Umbridge asked her to stay after the first Defense class of the term to give an update on anything she could report, it didn't bring her mood down.

The next day, however, brought her down to an all new low. Terry had met her in the Great Hall and clutched her arm. He dragged him to a secluded corner beside the stairs. "I figured you wanted to find out here instead of where everyone else was."

"What are you talking about, Boot?" asked Corinna. He thrusted his copy of the Daily Prophet in front of her and she grabbed it. On the front in large letters "Mass Breakout From Azkaban: Ministry Fears Black is 'Rallying Point' for Old Death Eaters."

But Corinna could not read any further. Her eyes were glued to one of the many pictures shown of those who broke out. She looked like Aunt Andromeda, but Azkaban had taken most of her beauty and left only a shadow of her former good looks. The only thing Corinna had received from her mother was her thin lips and heavy-lidded eyes. According to her father, she looked more like her grandmother did when she was younger, except Corinna's hair was darkening as she got older. Right now, it could pass as brunette more than blonde.

Corinna's mouth was dry as she looked over the article without taking anything else in. Her eyes kept straying back to Bellatrix and her arrogant smile. It was hard to look at this photo and think that this was the woman who gave birth to her. All she saw was a monster who broke apart one of her classmate's families.

She shoved the paper back at Terry, who was waiting for Corinna to say something first. But she had been quiet for a little too long, because he finally spoke up. "Corinna?"

"I forgot a quill up in my dorm," she said automatically. She woodenly took the stairs as she could feel Terry's eyes still on her. He might have been calling after her, but she didn't hear anything.

She went to the nearest girl's washroom and rushed to the sink. She felt like she was going to puke, but nothing seemed to come up. She splashed her face with cold water. She shook violently and gripped the edge of the porcelain to try to release some of the tension.

After a moment, she looked up at the mirror and saw how pale she was. "You can't change who your family is," she said, paraphrasing the words Aunt Andromeda used to soothe her. "So why are you letting that bitch make you this way?" She grabbed a towel and dried off her face. She let herself have that moment of weakness, but no more. She was still pale, but her jaw was clenched in determination. "I can forge my own path. I am not defined by what she has done."

"Good luck with that," a voice had said from above Corinna. She looked up, but there wasn't anything there. Remembering that this was the bathroom that Moaning Myrtle haunted, she quickly grabbed her bag and made her way to class.

She took her aunt's words to heart. She poured everything she could into the D.A. meetings. She never looked over at Neville, but even she could feel the shift within him, determined to learn how to defend himself against the person who left him without parents.

"Tomorrow, we're going to have a friend date," Terry insisted from their usual library table. Corinna paused to think about what tomorrow was, and she couldn't believe it was already going to be a Hogsmeade visit. "Neither one of us have dates since you are too chicken to ask Harry Potter—" Corinna gave his arm a friendly whap, "—and I am not interested in anyone who is currently out of the closet, we should just go on a friend date."

"Well, people still think we are dating despite what you announced in your common room." According to other credible sources that aren't Terry as he likes to exaggerate when recounting a story: the night before the end of term, a Ravenclaw seventh year had snuck a few bottles of mead and proceeded to play a drinking game which either involved telling a secret or chugging your drink, and if you didn't know that secret you had to drink. Apparently, he decided to tell everyone he was gay instead of drink a fifth glass of mead.

"I don't regret it," Terry reminded. "You know I am not someone who is going to have a teary coming out. Probably should have a little more tact than 'I'm queer as shite!' but here we are."

"Maybe," said Corinna as she looked over her transfigurations essay, wondering where she could add another couple of inches.

"I still need to tell my parents," he admitted as he stared at the same passage in his transfiguration book. "I was planning on doing it over Christmas, but there never seemed to be the right time."

Corinna frowned slightly. "I doubt there is going to be the right time," she reminded. "You just need to sit them down one day and talk about it."

"Well, it's going to have to wait for summer because like hell am I going home when all I'll be doing anyway is studying," said Terry as he absently nibbled on the top of his quill. "Do you think Pince will let us just camp out here when that happens?"

"Doubtful," said Corinna. "So, what did you have in mind for our friend date?"

He apparently wanted to take Corinna to Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, but as soon as they spotted Harry with Cho, he rightly changed his plans and took her to the Hog's Head. It was a complete one-eighty from what he had in mind, but it had a bit of a nostalgic factor for them as this was where they had their first D.A. meeting. Corinna forced herself not to think about it as they managed to get a bottle of wine for their table despite the fact that they were just students. They almost made a drinking game out of it, but neither of them had very many secrets the other didn't know. Once Corinna admitted that she almost drank her father's entire bottle of fire whiskey the night before going to Hogwarts and the fact that she was deathly afraid of bees, wasps, and every other flying, stinging insect, she was out of things to say. It seemed Terry didn't have many more secrets, only that he had drank an entire bottle of wine by himself over Christmas ("And how you didn't manage to barge out of the closet, I will never understand," Corinna teased.) and how the sorting hat wanted to put him in Hufflepuff.

"Oh, I guess that's another secret," said Corinna. "The sorting hat wanted to put me in Slytherin."

"Well, now that makes sense," said Terry. He didn't have many inhibitions while sober. He was somehow worse when he was drunk.

"Both of my grandparents and my father were also in Slytherin," said Corinna as Terry poured them both more glasses, nearly spilling the wine in the process. "In fact, I imagine I am the first Gryffindor on both sides of my family ever."

"What about your aunt Andromeda?"

"She was Slytherin, Uncle Ted was in Ravenclaw, and Dora was in Hufflepuff."

"So, with you being a bloody lion, you lot represent all the houses."

"Huh." Corinna hadn't noticed the correlation before. "Guess you're right. And that's why you're a bloody eagle."

When Terry had gone up to get a second bottle of wine, they were told to pay and get out or else they would tell the school what they were doing. They smartly counted out the sickles and handed them over with apologies.

Since they wanted to sober up a bit before going to the castle, they walked towards the shrieking shack. Although it has lost some of its allure now that they now know that their old professor had to go there to transform into a werewolf every full moon, it was at least away from the crowds who might suspect that they had more than just a butterbeer or two.

"Does it bother you?" Terry asked. Corinna thought that he might be talking about the shrieking shack, but he elaborated. "To see Harry with Cho?"

Corinna made a face as her stomach churned uneasily. She wanted to chalk it up to the wine, but she knew that wasn't it. She had enough to feel good, not enough to actually be sick. "Please," she said dismissively, "as if he would go for someone like me. He knows my demons. He witnessed them firsthand."

"Don't sell yourself short," said Terry as he slung his arm over Corinna's shoulders. "You are a catch. I'm calling it now: this date is going to be a disaster and all you have to do is wait for him in the common room with a rose in your mouth."

"Shut up, you arsehole," said Corinna as she shoved Terry away. He just laughed and slung his arm back around her shoulders. "No wonder everyone still thinks we're dating."

"I'll stop if you think it will ruin your chances with Potter."

"Piss off!" Corinna shifted away from Terry and the two of them headed back to the castle, laughing. As Corinna climbed into the portrait hole, still flushed from their adventure, she couldn't help but think that she hadn't been this happy in a long time.

Although one exciting thing to happen nearly a fortnight after the Hogsmeade trip. Unbeknownst to a majority of the Hogwarts occupants, Harry had spent the Hogsmeade trip he wasn't snogging with Cho Chang giving an interview to Rita Skeeter about the events of last year. It was an exposé on how You-Know-Who was back and gave the unadulterated story of how it occurred. Corinna was glad to read—as she had immediately sent her grandfather's owl out to get her a copy and he came back that very day—that he only kept the events that her father mentioned to those relevant to You-Know-Who's resurrection.

"Do you think people will still think he's barmy?" asked Terry as he looked over the article. She had to charm it to be blank as Umbridge had banned anyone from having a copy of the Quibbler, but right now it looked as it usually did as she knew for a fact Umbridge wasn't going to barge through the library without dealing with the wrath that was Madame Pince without just cause.

"Probably," said Corinna, but she didn't care. Her heart was swollen with pride that she felt that Harry did something like this. She didn't think she could sit with a perfect stranger and recount the events that happened that night. But it may also be from overhearing Cho recounting how horrid her date was with Harry. Either way, she was happy.

And this was going to be the happiest she would be in a long, long time.

Although she thought that the impromptu party in the common room that night was a bit much, she did find herself staring at the enlarge front cover of the Quibbler that the Weasley twins had put up more times than naught.

One night a while later, as Corinna and Terry were about to head into the library, a group of younger Slytherins stopped them. "It's Trelawney," one of the girls piped up. "She's getting sacked!"

Abandoning their studies, Corinna and Terry followed the group and were immediately halted by a large group crowding around the entrance hall. "Help me up," Corinna said as Terry helped her stand on the ledge and held onto the wall for support. She supposed that, under any other circumstances, he probably would have a problem with this, but he seemed to have his wand in hand in case he needed to help Corinna.

From her nearly-bird's eye view, she saw Trelawney standing in the middle of the hall, clutching her wand and an empty sherry bottle. Corinna remembered sneaking a bottle of sherry that Winky used once for cooking and the memories came back with a bad taste in her mouth.

"No," she shrieked to the point that, despite the crowd and height, Corinna could hear her loud and clear. "No! This cannot be happening. It cannot. I refuse to accept it."

"You didn't realize this was coming?" said the unmistakable voice of Umbridge. "Incapable though you are of predicting tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked."

"What's going on?" Terry stage-whispered to Corinna and she quickly surmised what was going on while keeping a close eye on the transgressions below. It hurt Corinna's heart to hear Trelawney call Hogwarts her home. At one point, she had agreed with that sentiment.

"It was your home," said Umbridge and Corinna had half a mind to send a jinx her way. She had the perfect vantage point. And her aim was fairly good now. There was very little chance of the spell going astray. "Until an hour ago when the Minister of Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now, kindly remove yourself form this Hall. You are embarrassing us."

Corinna could vaguely hear Trelawney's sobs and moans, but she immediately noticed McGonagall breaking away from the crowd and going to comfort Trelawney. If McGonagall had said any words of comfort, they were lost on Corinna. But Umbridge's rebuttal was loud and clear, as if she wanted to make sure that all the students and staff in the crowd could hear what she had to say. "Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" said Umbridge as she stepped forward. "And your authority for that statement is?"

"That would be mine."

The front doors swung open and students who were standing in front of them scurried to get out of the way. Dumbledore strode into the hall, and even from her vantage point, Corinna could see his blue eyes sparkle behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge with a laugh. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here—" She pulled out a scroll from her robes "—an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she—that is to say, I—feel is not performing up to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."

The smile never faded from Dumbledore's lips, and Corinna had a hard time retelling what was going on without calling Umbridge names that the group of first years they had followed shouldn't hear.

"You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid that the power to do that still resides with the Headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts."

There was an exchange that Corinna couldn't hear as it seemed that Trelawney could no longer speak up louder than a whisper. She couldn't blame the woman. She may not be her teacher, but Corinna didn't think it was right for something like this to happen. Eventually, McGonagall had escorted Trelawney back upstairs, which the students on the stairs immediately moved out of the way as to not face the wrath of McGonagall when she is angry.

"And what," said Umbridge in a dark voice, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't a problem. You see, I have already found us a new Divination, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

Umbridge sputtered in surprise. "Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Number Twenty-two—"

"The Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if—and only if—the Headmaster is unable to find out. And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

Corinna's jaw slackened as the sound of hooves echoed through the hall. It was a centaur. Corinna knew that the forest held such creatures, but she never met one as they did not take kindly to wizardkind. "What's going on?" Terry whispered. "Is that a horse?"

"Not quite," Corinna said as the centaur joined Dumbledore by the entrance.

"This is Firenze," said Dumbledore. "I think you'll find him suitable."

Dumbledore forced the crowd to disperse after that as Umbridge went into a fit about contacting Cornelius—"sorry, the Minister"—right away about this, as she put it, "cruel misuse of authority."

"She's just pissed because he's supposedly a half-breed," Corinna said as she hopped down from the ledge. ("What were you even doing up there, Miss Crouch!" asked Sprout when she joined in with the other teachers to get everyone where they were supposed to go.) "She basically ranted about them during our first Defense lesson as she complained about Professor Lupin being a werewolf."

"Either way, I have a feeling I'm actually going to have an interesting Divination lesson," Terry said as the dawdled on the seventh floor where they were supposed to split up.

Apparently, it was, as Terry admitted he had fallen asleep trying to clear his mind and focus on what the stars were telling him. "I think they were telling me that I need to start drinking coffee," he said, which Corinna made a face, but didn't say anything. Thanks to the abundance of tea that Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted like to drink, that's all she could drink during mealtime or else she suffered from a headache. She was not in a position to scold someone for their caffeine intake when hers was off the charts.

"Or maybe you should start going to bed earlier," Corinna countered, but that was not going to happen. As a bleak March turned to a milder April and the Easter holidays edged closer, everyone was feeling the pressure from the upcoming exams. Corinna and Terry spent every waking moment that wasn't in class or in meals studying. Even when they were sent out at curfew, Corinna found herself sitting in her bed with her study materials late into the night where she would usually find herself reading for pleasure.

In fact, if it weren't for the D.A. meetings to punctuate some of the endless days of studying, Corinna might have gone insane. It was a relief to finally work on Patronuses. It had taken a couple of lessons, but some had even started making corporeal ones. Much to Corinna's chagrin, Cho managed before her and produced a swan. She, of course, had to brag about how pretty it was, but Corinna couldn't help but smirk when Harry put her in her place about it being used for defense and it isn't a beauty contest.

"Ah, look, Corinna!" Terry said excitedly as he looked at the shining creature swirling around. It was surprising as he kept glancing over at the newcomer. "I think yours is a dolphin!"

Sure enough, as Corinna focused her concentration, the form solidified and she saw the telltale sign of a thin snout and a fin, swimming through the air as if it were underwater. Her mouth was a small 'o' in surprise as she watched it. Grudgingly, she had to admit that it was pretty.

"Hey, look at mine!" Corinna lost her concentration, so her dolphin disappeared. A magpie had danced around instead, and Corinna couldn't help but laugh. But their excitement died down when the door opened again and had immediately closed. Harry was on the other side of the room by then, and Corinna couldn't see who had come in. But everyone was silent and the various Patronuses had evaporated into the air. It seemed to take an uncomfortably long time for Harry to get any information out of the newcomer which, according to Dean who was practicing with the newcomer, Seamus, was a house elf. Corinna immediately thought of Winky, but she wasn't sure what had happened to her.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" bellowed Harry all of a sudden. "RUN!"

Corinna did the opposite of what Harry had instructed and made her way to the house elf who was trying to inflict self-punishment as he probably couldn't say what was going on.

"Corinna, what are you doing?" Terry asked as he managed to catch up to her. Her heart sank when she saw it was a different elf from Winky. She didn't know why it would be her. "Come on, we have to go. Umbridge is coming."

They ran in the opposite direction that Harry had gone, opting for the library as it was close and they could pretend to have been there the whole night, but when Corinna saw Umbridge coming, she knew she had to do something.

"Stun me," she told Terry as she pushed him behind a statue so he would not be in line of sight.

"Have you gone mad?" he demanded.

"Probably," Corinna admitted. "Just stun me, Boot, and make a break for it."

It was a quick "Stupefy," and Corinna found herself unmoving on the ground. She was just coming to when Umbridge loomed above her with a shocked expression.

"What's this? Miss Crouch, what's the meaning of this?" It took a jab from Umbridge's short wand to bring Corinna fully back to her senses.

"I'm sorry Professor," Corinna said, wincing slightly as she sat up. "I should have reported to you straight away, but I needed to make sure that this was the real thing before I reported to you my findings. I-I couldn't disappoint you again."

Corinna thought she had been laying it on a bit thick, but Umbridge seemed to be eating it up. "Oh, this is too perfect," she said. She gave a shriek of laughter. "Between you and Miss Edgecomb's testimony, and the fact that we have Potter…" She looked as giddy as a kid who was promised extra sweets, but Corinna's heart pounding heavily in her chest.

Umbridge still kept a firm grip on Corinna as she dragged her and Harry to Dumbledore's office. Corinna had only been there one other time, which was the night her grandfather was caught trying to speak to Dumbledore and her father had killed him. It still looked the same, but there were a greater number of people than she anticipated, including her grandfather's old assistant, Percy Weasley. Oh, Merlin, she was going to regret doing this. It sounded so good at first. If she was caught, she could have talked her way out of it and no one else would have been in trouble. But as she laid her eyes on Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, she felt her laid-out lies leaving her tongue.

This was more than just a group of kids getting caught practicing some spells together, and the look that Fudge gave Harry confirmed her suspicions.

After some mindless chit-chat between Fudge and Umbridge, Fudge turned to Harry. "I expect you know why you are here?"

Harry looked between Fudge and Dumbledore, and Corinna thought that she would suddenly need to get very good at chess. She was going to need to change her plans depending on whatever Harry said next.

"Ye—no." At Fudge's question, he said a much firmer, "No." No matter how Fudge worded the question, Harry kept saying no.

"So you have no idea why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office. You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"

"School rules?" said Harry. "No."

"Or Ministry Decrees?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"What about you, Crouch?" Fudge turned sharply to Corinna and her heart thudded loudly. "You told Umbridge that you needed to confirm something before you told her about it."

Corinna wasn't completely certain what Harry was playing at, and she could not get a read on anyone else what she should be saying. "I remember saying that," she said carefully.

Fudge looked like he wanted her to elaborate. "Well?" he demanded.

"You didn't ask me a question."

A vein throbbed on Fudge's neck at Corinna's cheek and she realized what was happening. They needed proof. They were the type to immediately send Harry packing as he was the obvious leader. So that means, they knew something was happening tonight, but not precisely what occurred.

"Were you aware that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?"

"No," said Corinna and she tried to look confused, but she had a feeling it was as convincing as Harry's innocent plea.

"No, what do you mean, no?"

"I was unaware that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school."

"What is the meaning of this?" Fudge demanded. "You said she was spying for you!"

"I think, Minister," said Umbridge, trying to save face, "we might make better progress if we fetch our informant."

Fudge agreed as he glared at Corinna and Harry.

It was an agonizing few minutes while Umbridge was gone to fetch whoever broke their silence. Corinna did not dare look at Harry. Soon, they were dragged back into reality when the door opened behind them. She glanced over to see Marietta Edgecombe being dragged into the room. She was desperately hiding her face and refused to look over at anyone.

Umbridge was giving her soft reassurances, in between telling Fudge who Marietta's mother is within the Ministry. Everyone was shocked into silence when Marietta finally lifted her head to reveal her face being marred by a series of purple pimples that rivaled even the mountain ranges that Corinna had to tackle each day as she washed her face. It was undeniable that the pimples had spelt out the word 'SNEAK.'

"Never mind the spots now, dear," Umbridge encouraged, which never helped an adolescent deal with normal acne in their life, let alone something as cursed and as unavoidable as what was on Marietta's face. "Just take your robes away from your mouth and tell the Minister—" But Marietta shook her head violently and refused to say anything. "Oh, very well, you silly girl. I'll tell him. Well, Minister, Miss Edgecombe here came to my office shortly after dinner this evening and told me she had something she wanted to tell me. She said that if I proceeded to a secret room on the seventh floor, sometimes known as the Room of Requirement, I would find out something to my advantage. I questioned her a little further and she admitted that there was to be some kind of meeting there. Unfortunately, at that point this hex came into operation and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more."

"Well, now, it is very brave of you, my dear, coming to tell Professor Umbridge. You did exactly the right thing. Now, will you tell me what happened at this meeting? What was its purpose? Who was there?" When Marietta still refused to answer, he demanded if there was a counter-jinx, but Umbridge admitted that they were still looking for one. Corinna considered that Dumbledore or McGonagall might know something, but they remained still.

"No matter," Umbridge said dismissively. "I can pick up the story from there. You will remember, Minister, that I sent you a report back in October that Potter had met a number of fellow students in the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade—" When McGonagall demanded evidence, Umbridge continued. "I have testimony from Willy Widdershins, Minerva, who happened to be in the bar at the time. He was heavily bandaged, but his hearing was quite unimpaired. He heard every word Potter said and hastened straight to the school to report to me." Umbridge was interrupted by McGonagall calling out how, in not so many words, that the Ministry of Magic was corrupted. "The purpose of Potter's meeting with these students was to persuade them to join an illegal society, whose aim was to learn spells and curses the Ministry has decided are inappropriate for school-age—"

"I think you'll find you're wrong there, Dolores," said Dumbledore quiet.

Corinna wondered how Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted were going to react to her coming home much, much before summer holiday. This plan of Corinna's was only going to work if she was the only one caught, not Harry, and the fact that they have a witness from the Hog's Head…

Now she understood what Dumbledore was getting at.

After Fudge had a bit of fun making fun of whatever harebrained scheme he thought the headmaster might say, Dumbledore explained plainly. "Cornelius, I do not deny—and nore, I am sure, does Harry—that he was in the Hog's Head that day, nor that he was trying to recruit students to a Defense Against the Dark Arts group I am merely pointing out that Dolores is quite wrong to suggest that such a group was, at the time, illegal. If you remember, the Ministry Decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after Harry's Hogsmeade meeting, so he was not breaking any rules at all in the Hog's Head."

"That's all very fine, Headmaster," said Umbridge, forcing her voice to be sweet enough to cause cavities, "but we are now nearly six months on from the introduction of Educational Decree Number Twenty-four. If the first meeting was not illegal, all those that have happened since most certainly are."

"Well," said Dumbledore, "they certainly would be, if they had continued after the Decree came into effect. Do you have any evidence that any such meetings continued?"

"Evidence? Have you not been listening, Dumbledore? Why do you think Miss Edgecombe and Miss Crouch are here?"

Corinna bit her tongue from saying something she might regret. She finally understood a look that Dumbledore gave her to keep quiet. She was more than happy to do so as she was still trying to figure her way out of this, and to get Harry also out of here unscathed.

"Can either of them tell us about six months' worth of meetings? I was under the impression that Marietta was merely reporting a meeting tonight and Corinna here had something she wanted to confirm with you before she stepped forward."

"Yes, yes, Dumbledore," said Umbridge with glee. She turned to Corinna and the large smile made her dinner want to come back up. "Go on, Miss Crouch. Tell me what you wanted to report."

Corinna darted her eyes from Umbridge to Dumbledore to Marietta and back to Umbridge. "I'm not going to say anything," she said plainly. "I have enough acne to deal with, thanks."

If this was a different audience, her joke might have hit different. But no one seemed amused by Corinna's comment. As it was, Umbridge now looked like she wanted to strangle Corinna within an inch of her life. "Fine," said Umbridge as she turned sharply to Marietta. "Tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. You can simply nod or shake your head. I'm sure that won't make the spots worse. Have they been happening regularly over the last six months?"

Corinna had to admit that she did not see that coming. At least she could still brew most potions without a wand if she were expelled and had her wand snapped. She had that going for her. She knew she wouldn't fully disappoint the family she just met but grew to love. Dora even admitted she would have gone along with something like this if she had been in this position. And Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted didn't seem to be the types to stand back over something like this either…

Everyone waited with baited breath to see Marietta's reaction. Corinna wanted to scream from the anticipation, knowing it was just going to seal their fate, when Marietta's head gave a firm shake.

"I don't think you understood the question, did you, dear? I'm asking whether you've been going to these meetings for the past six months? You have, haven't you?" Umbridge almost sounded panicked as she finished her questions. Their whole case against Harry and the other members of the D.A. hinged on Marietta. And again, she shook her head. "What do you mean by shaking your head, dear?"

"I would have thought her meaning was quite clear," said McGonagall, "there have been no secret meetings for the past six months. Is that correct, Miss Edgecombe?" She nodded and Corinna tried not to look confused. If anything, she should be surprised by these events. She was supposed to be a spy, after all.

"But there was a meeting tonight!" said Umbridge, her sweet veneer getting chipped away as things were quickly going against her favor. "There was a meeting, Miss Edgecombe, you told me about it, in the Room of Requirement! And Potter was the leader, was he not. Potter organized it, Potter—why are you shaking your head, girl?"

"Well, usually when a person shakes their head," said McGonagall, "they mean 'no.' So unless Miss Edgecombe is using a form of sign-language as yet unknown to humans."

Corinna almost couldn't believe how stupid Umbridge was in the next second as she seized Marietta by the shoulders and was shaking her violently. Dumbledore was immediately on his feet and had his wand trained on Umbridge and she jumped back as if she was burned. Knowing Dumbledore, she was.

"I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores." Corinna could count on one hand how many times she had seen Dumbledore angry, and that was still too many times. She never, ever wanted to be on the receiving end of his anger.

"You want to calm yourself, Madam Umbridge." Corinna barely registered that yet another person was in the room. He was a sturdy black man dressed in Auror robes. She would have to ask Dora about him.

Umbridge reassured the Auror (by the name of Shacklebolt) that he was right and that she had forgotten herself. Marietta seemed completely out of it. As if she were in a trance. She couldn't have been shook that hard.

Fudge called back their attention. "The meeting tonight. The one we know definitely happened."

"Miss Edgecombe tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor," Umbridge explained after she recovered. "I was accompanied by certain trustworthy students, so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. It appears that they were forewarned of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction. It does not matter, however. I have all their names here. Miss Parkinson ran into the Room of Requirement for me to see if they had left anything behind. We needed evidence and the room provided."

Umbridge handed the list that Hermione had everyone sign in the Hog's Head. Corinna had completely forgotten they did that. And her name was on the list. If she wasn't already doomed before, she was now.

"Excellent," said Fudge as he looked like he was picking out a roast for dinner. He scanned the document and looked up sharply at Corinna when he got to the bottom of the page. But it seemed that something more interesting than the supposed spy's name being on it. "By thunder, what's this?" He held the paper up for everyone to see. "See what they've named themselves? Dumbledore's Army."

Corinna balled her fists to her side to keep them from shaking. Ginny's words came back to her as Dumbledore calmly took the page and looked it over. "Well, the game is up. Would you like a written confession from me, or will a statement before these witnesses suffice?"

"Statement?" Fudge demanded. "What—I don't—"

"Dumbledore's Army, Cornelius. Not Potter's Army."

It took a comical amount of time for Fudge to catch on. "You? You organized this?" After Dumbledore's affirmation, he continued. "You recruited these students for your army?"

"Tonight, was supposed to be the first meeting. Merely to see whether they would be interested in joining me. I see now that it was a mistake to invite Miss Edgecombe and Miss Crouch, of course. As you can see, this was the first meeting Corinna has been to as her name is on the very bottom."

Marietta nodded and Corinna followed suit. She resisted the urge to feel her face for any new acne.

"Then you have been plotting against me!"

"That's right."

"NO!" Corinna resisted the urge to elbow Harry to shut up, but there were too many eyes on them. As much as she didn't want Dumbledore taking the fall for them, he had a much, much higher chance of getting out of here than a couple of fifteen-year-olds did. "No—Professor Dumbledore!"

"Be quiet, Harry," said Dumbledore, which was met with Fudge's, "Yes, shut up, Potter!"

"Well, well, well. I came here tonight expecting to expel Potter…"

"Instead you get to arrest me." Corinna did not understand how Dumbledore sounded thrilled at the prospect. "It's like losing a Knut and finding a Galleon, isn't it?"

Now Fudge looked like the roast was cooked and he was ready to devour it. He made sure that Percy Weasley had copied everything down of Dumbledore's confession, especially the part where he was plotting against the Ministry. He then barked orders for it to be duplicated and sent to the Daily Prophet's office expecting it to make it for the morning edition. "You will now be escorted back to the Ministry, where you will be formally charged, and then sent to Azkaban to await trial!"

"Ah, yes. I thought we might hit that little snag." Fudge scoffed, but Dumbledore paid him now mind. "It's just that you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to—what's the phrase?—come quietly. I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all. Cornelius, I have no intention of being sent to Azkaban. I could break out, of course—but what a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of a whole host of things I would rather be doing." Umbridge looked as if she was about to explode. Fudge looked confused as if he had started reading a book halfway through. A forgotten man with gray hair stepped forward and reached for his wand. "Don't be silly, Dawlish. I'm sure you are an excellent Auror—I seem to remember that you achieved 'Outstanding' in all your N.E.W.T.s—but if you attempt to bring me in by force, I will have to hurt you."

"So," sneered Fudge, "you intend to take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Dolores, and myself single-handed, do you, Dumbledore?"

"Merlin's beard, no. Not unless you are foolish enough to force me to."

"He will not be single-handed!"

"Oh yes he will, Minerva! Hogwarts needs you."

"Enough of this rubbish!" said Fudge, arming himself. "Dawlish! Shacklebolt! Take him!"

An earth-shattering explosion shook the office, flashing before Corinna's eyes. She felt herself be pulled down to the ground and she wildly groped for whoever had done it out of fear she was being attacked. There was a second flash and something gave a bird-like screech from above. Corinna coughed loudly as she tried to sense where anything was within the dust. She could hear odd noises, but then everything fell silent.

As the dust cleared, Corinna saw McGonagall. She had managed to essentially tackle Corinna, Harry, and Marietta down to the ground before the explosion went off. As the dust settled more, she could see a figure looming over them. "Are you alright?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes!" McGonagall stood up and pulled Harry and Corinna up. Corinna managed to grab Marietta's arm and pull her up as McGonagall couldn't help everyone. Around them, the floor was littered with those that Dumbledore had to attack.

"Unfortunately, I had to hex Kingsley, too, or it would have looked suspicious. He was remarkably quick on the uptake, modifying Miss Edgecombe's memory like that while everyone was looking the other way—thank him, for me, won't you, Minerva? Now, they will all awake very soon and it will be best if they do not know that we had time to communicate—you must act as though no time has passed, as though they were merely knocked to the ground, they will not remember." When McGonagall asked where Dumbledore will go, he shook his head. "I am not leaving to go into hiding. Fudge will soon wish he'd never dislodged me from Hogwarts, I promise you…" Harry looked over at Dumbledore and looked as if he had a million things he wanted to say and not nearly enough time to even say one of them. "Listen to me, Harry. You must study Occlumency as hard as you can, do you understand me? Do everything Professor Snape tells you and practice it particularly every night before sleeping so that you can close your mind to bad dreams—you will understand why soon enough, but you must promise me." Before Harry could even attempt to make such a promise, they began to stir. "Remember: close your mind."

As Dumbledore grabbed Harry's arm, his face screwed up in pain. He almost looked angry, but the feeling seemed to pass as soon as Dumbledore released his grip. As if this evening hadn't been confusing enough as it was.

A large red bird—a phoenix as Corinna would soon learn—swooped down from where he was circling the office. Dumbledore reached up and grabbed his tail. They both went up in a flash of fire.

It was a scramble as the others came to and argued to where Dumbledore could have gone. Dawlish suggested the stairs and they all scurried out of the office. Fudge, however, stuck around, as if to gloat in their supposed victory. "Well, Minerva. I'm afraid this is the end of your friend Dumbledore."

"You think so, do you?" McGonagall challenged.

"You'd better get them off to bed," said Fudge as if he hadn't heard McGonagall in the first place.

As she silently ushered the three of them out, one of the portraits around the office piped up. "You know, Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many counts, but you cannot deny he's got style."

When McGonagall got to the Gryffindor dormitory after sending Marietta off to the hospital wing, she immediately forced everyone dawdling around to go to bed. She made sure every last student was in their dormitories before stalking off to deal with the aftermath.

Corinna should have expected the three girls she shared a dorm with to want to hear all the details. They were all there during the meeting, and Hermione was one of the founding members. As much as she did not want to, she recounted the events that transpired in Dumbledore's office, leaving out the last part just before Dumbledore disappeared. Corinna was certain Harry would tell Hermione what Dumbledore had told him and what had happened when he touched Harry, but she didn't want to say anything in front of Lavender and Parvati.

"Do you think McGonagall will be our new headmistress?" asked Parvati. "She took over when Dumbledore was forced to step down during our second year."

"I can already see the next Decree being pinned stating that she is the new headmistress," said Hermione darkly. "It's what they wanted all this time. The Ministry wanted an excuse to get rid of Dumbledore so they can fully take over the school."


	5. In Which Umbridge is in Over her Head

No matter what she did, Corinna could not sleep. She kept replaying the events repeatedly in her mind's eye and she could not get them to stop, no matter how much she was tried stopping them. Eventually, with the very dim glow of her wand, she read one of the novels that she borrowed from Uncle Ted. He seemed to like muggle spy novels, in which Corinna found oddly fitting given her situation. They were not her favorite, but they were oddly informative, like not accepting food or drink from a known enemy, and always having a Swiss Army Knife on you—whatever that could be.

She was awake and dressed before dawn, which was why she was surprised to see a flying memo not unlike those that fly around the Ministry. It was Umbridge's tight scrawl telling Corinna to meet her in her office as soon as she received the letter.

Being silent so she did not wake her dormmates, Corinna grabbed her bag for the day and trudged down the stairs to the common room. As Hermione predicted, there was a new note pinned to the announcements board stating that Dolores Jane Umbridge was now the new Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Although it was technically before curfew was lifted, Corinna made her way down to Umbridge's office. She had thought to go to Dumbledore's office, but there is no way that she was able to move into there in just a few short hours. In fact, it looked as if she had not even started packing her things.

"Oh, good, you received my memo," said Umbridge gleefully. She looked like she hadn't slept, but that didn't change her demeaner in the slightest. "I wanted to discuss the events of last night. Tea?" Before Corinna could say no, Umbridge had poured each of them a cup and asked if she wanted any milk or sugar. She declined the add-ins and accepted the cup with no intentions of drinking it. It looked and smelled like the typical black tea that they serve at the school, but she could not be too careful. She thought back to the novel she read the previous night.

"Drink up, before it cools off," said Umbridge. She took a fake sip, her lips never parting open. "Now, tell me, why did you lie to the Minister last night."

Corinna held the cup and saucer close to her chest. "Did you really expect me to say something in front of him?" she asked. "You know what Professor Dumbledore is capable of."

"Cornelius and I were there to protect you, along with two Aurors," said Umbridge impatiently. "We would never have let any harm come to you." After another encouragement to drink, she asked, "You can now safely tell me what you wanted to say."

"Since I had worked my way into gaining trust with Harry Potter, he told me about a meeting happening last night. I gave him my word and went to the Room of Requirement that night. He told me to sign my name on the list as a sign of trust, and I knew I had to do it for you, Professor. You would require proof, especially since I had not been able to get any information for so long. I signed the document but, before anything could really happen, you raided the room with a few other students. I made to come find you, but someone stunned me. I didn't see who. And, well, you were there for the rest of it. I don't want to relive those events, if you don't mind, but I will if you ask that of me.

The lie almost came too easily for Corinna, which scared her. She just reminded herself that Dumbledore and other circumstances laid down the foundation, all she had to do was fill in a few holes that seemed believable. She also did not need to feel for any pimples. Hermione reassured her that if she lied about what happened without any intentions of telling Umbridge what really transpired, then she should be fine. The "should" worried Corinna, but she felt confident in what she said.

"That's quite alright, dear," said Umbridge, but she looked very much annoyed. "I appreciate everything you have done for me. I would have liked results sooner, but that is the nature of the beast." She leaned forward over her desk and held out a small, silver badge that had an 'I' on it. "I hope you will continue to do good work on an official capacity now as part of the Inquisitorial Squad, despite the cowardice you showed last night." Corinna accepted the badge and Umbridge sat back down. "You will have the same rights and responsibilities as a prefect, and so much more. You can now dock house points from students of all houses, and I will ask you to do a few things from time to time such as overseeing detentions and the like. I promise it will not interfere with your studies."

Now that the D.A. is no longer going to happen, there was no reason for Corinna to accept the position. She had no desire to work for this wretched woman. "I don't know if I can do this," she admitted. "I was stunned last time I did something for you."

"Something like this would look excellent on your Ministry application, Miss Crouch," Umbridge reminded, and Corinna had completely forgotten that she told Umbridge she was considering working for them once she was done with school. "I would not squander an opportunity like this to get in the good graces of the Minister. You already have so many negative points against you. I would hate for something worse to come out."

It took all of Corinna's willpower not to stand up and smack Umbridge across the toadish face. She couldn't even be certain what that something worse was or how she found out about them, but she had a few guesses. "Alright," she said as she was backed into a corner. "Thank you for the opportunity, Professor Umbridge."

"That's what I thought." Umbridge looked gleeful again. "Run along to the Great Hall. While in the corridor, keep an eye on students and correct any unwanted behavior."

She didn't specify rules or decrees, simply unwanted behavior. Corinna did not like the sound of that. She gave a curt nod as she set the untouched tea onto her desk and left the office.

"Corinna!" Terry looked relieved to find her heading down to the Great Hall. "I thought for sure you were expelled. I did not know what you were thinking, and I just panicked! What happened?"

Food being the last thing on her mind, she dragged Terry into an unoccupied classroom. She gave him the same rundown as she gave her dormmates the night before, but then added what had occurred in Umbridge's office just that morning.

"She didn't give me a choice," Corinna defended when Terry looked annoyed when she admitted having joined Umbridge's little gang. "She threatened me with releasing more undesirable information. If you haven't already noticed, I have a few things I do not want the general populace to know. And there is no one higher I can complain to and I can't tell her no. I'm fucked, Boot."

Terry gave Corinna a look and he wanted to say something, but the bell rang to signal for students to get to class. "We'll figure this out," he promised. "Just be very, very careful, Corinna."

Corinna had pinned the badge under a fold in her robe so no one would see it, but she was technically still wearing it. But that didn't seem to matter whether people saw it or not. As the entire school learned about the Flight of Dumbledore, people picked up on the fact that Corinna was a double agent. Too bad everyone had wrongly accused her of ultimately working for Umbridge instead of trying to work for the D.A.

The old D.A. members kept glaring at Corinna, and she did what she could to convince them otherwise. She even pointed out that she had six months to say something to Umbridge and didn't to Zacharias Smith when he cornered her during Herbology. "Well, you quickly changed your tune when we were caught," he reminded and she just shoved him out of the way so she could leave the greenhouses. She easily caught up to a group who was listening to Harry's story (which he reassured that Corinna was on their side, which she was relieved about). Ernie added his own anecdote about how Umbridge couldn't get into Dumbledore's office and had herself a tantrum over it.

"Oh, I expect she really fancied herself sitting up there in the Head's office," said Hermione in the same tone she used last night when discussing these unfortunate turn of events. "Lording it over all the other teachers, the stupid, puffed-up, power-crazy, old—"

"Now, do you really want to finish that sentence, Granger?" Malfoy slid into view just as they were cross into the entrance hall, and was flagged by Crabbe and Goyle. "Afraid I'm going to have to dock a few points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff." He just smirked as the others tried to argue with him about it. "I know prefects can't dock points from other houses, Weasel King. But members of the Inquisitorial Squad." He pointed to the badge on his robes similar to the one Corinna had hidden on hers. "A select group of students who are supportive of the Ministry of Magic, hand-picked by Professor Umbridge. Anyway, members of the Inquisitorial Squad do have the power to dock points from anyone. So, Granger, I'll have five from you for being rude about our new Headmistress. Macmillan, five for contradicting me. Five because I don't like you, Potter. Weasley, your shirt's untucked, so I'll have another five for that. Crouch, I didn't even see you there, so have five off for being short. Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a Mudblood Granger, so ten off for that."

"And how about five points from Slytherin since you are being a huge git, Malfoy," said Corinna before Ron could do something stupid like punch Malfoy for the comment he made about Hermione.

"Five points for not hearing me, Crouch. You aren't even a prefect to begin with."

"No, but I am on the Inquisitorial Squad." She stared right at Malfoy's flabbergasted expression as she shifted her robes to show the silver badge pinned there. She did not want to look at the others in the group out of fear. "So, five points from Goyle for not having his shirt tucked in. And let's make it another five from Crabbe for being so slow on the uptake. And ten from you, Malfoy, for being a blood-purist wanker."

Corinna kept up her smirk as Malfoy and his goonies stalked away. They all had looked at the giant hourglasses that were set into the wall to show the different house's standings. Sure enough, it seemed that Slytherin's were the only ones that were left mostly unchanged—only going down a few pebbles from Corinna's attempt at balancing the scales.

"Noticed, have you?" said Fred's voice. He and George were coming down the marble staircase and joined them.

"Malfoy just docked us all fifty points," said Harry furiously. Even as they stood there, more pebbles were disappearing.

"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.

"He never managed to get all the words out due to the fact we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor." When Hermione pointed out that they could get into serious trouble, Fred continued. "Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks. I don't know where we sent him. Anyway, we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."

"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.

"Course we have. Never been expelled, have we?"

"We've always known where to draw the line."

"We might occasional toe across it."

"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem."

"Well, now—"

"—what with Dumbledore gone—"

"—we reckon a bit of mayhem—"

"—is exactly what our dear new Head deserves."

"You can't!" whispered Hermione. "She'd love a reason to expel you."

"You don't get it, Hermione, do you? We don't' care about staying anymore. We'd walk out right now if we weren't determined to do our bit for Dumbledore first. So, anyway—" Fred checked his watch "—phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the Great Hall for lunch, if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can't have had anything to do with it."

"Ten points each to Fred and George for being decent blokes," said Corinna, but the Gryffindor hour glasses remained unmoving, and then went down again. "I guess I can only dock points."

"At least we have one on our side," George said. "Now, as we said, move along."

As they were all about to head into the Great Hall (with Ernie saying something about unfinished homework and scurrying in the opposite way), Filch stopped Harry and told him that Umbridge wanted to see him. He hesitantly followed after him, leaving Hermione, Ron, and Corinna to find seats on the table. They stuck close to the doors.

"Why are you still working for that awful woman?" Hermione asked as no one made a move to put food on their plates.

"I didn't have much of a choice since she basically threatened me," admitted Corinna. "Besides, maybe it's a good thing that I am doing this. I can at least dock points from Slytherin."

"Until she asks you do something horrid," said Hermione. "I hope Harry's alright."

"Do you reckon he's going to get in trouble despite what Dumbledore did?" asked Ron.

"I have a feeling Umbridge doesn't give a damn about the D.A. anymore," said Corinna as she tapped her foot impatiently. "That got rid of Dumbledore. She's probably moving on to something else."

The three of them fell silent, worried about exactly what Umbridge intended to do now that she had all the power. Of course, the tension was short lived as a loud boom went off and the castle shook.

"There we go," said Hermione as the three of them scrambled up and followed the crowd to see what happened. A couple floors up, someone had set off a crate of enchanted fireworks. It was pandemonium as fireworks of various shapes and sizes whizzed through the air. Corinna didn't even have to stand on her tip-toes to see the chaos as it reigned throughout the corridor. Curses were sent flying throughout the air to combat them, but it seemed to only make things worse whenever they were hit with a spell.

The fireworks reigned throughout the entire afternoon. The teachers didn't seem to pay them no mind, only sending a student to find Umbridge in order for her to take care of them. As Flitwick reminded: "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether or not I had the authority."

Corinna wished she could have given Fred and George fifty points for the fireworks display, but she had to settle for docking five points here and there whenever she saw a non-Inquisitorial Squad Slytherin doing anything. She gave one for giving her a funny look and another for having untied shoelaces even though they wore slip-ons. But even with her taking points away all willy-nilly, it wasn't enough to even begin counteracting what the others were managing to do.

They had found Montague in the fourth-floor toilets the next night. One of the Inquisitorial Squad had found him, and she had called almost everyone in—including Corinna, much to her annoyance of being pulled from the library. However, in the chaos of Umbridge barking orders to find Professor Snape and finding a way to fully get him out of the toilet, Corinna had managed to Confund Montague so he wouldn't remember how he got there in the first place. It was the least she could do for Fred and George. She wasn't ready for them to leave the school just yet.

As the Easter holidays approached, so did the looming behemoth that was their O.W.L.s. Although she would have loved the idea of getting away from the castle for the short holiday, she knew she shouldn't. Instead, she celebrated the holiday with the eggs that Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted sent her. There was one decorated with the word 'sneak' and she knew that one was from Dora. It brought a smile to Corinna's face. She wondered how Umbridge felt about that when she searched the package.

"Six weeks," Terry muttered under his breath and he shoved another one of Corinna's chocolates in his face. Since food was absolutely forbidden in the library, they had camped out in an abandoned classroom, after Terry used his prefect voice to kick out a couple of snogging fourth years. Since neither of them were Slytherin, Corinna left it at that. As she wasn't one to have a sweet tooth, she let him have whatever he wanted. Which seemed to be all of it. "We only have six bloody weeks until the most important exams of our entire lives."

"No pressure," said Corinna as she organized her notes, going all the way back. These exams were designed to test what they learned since they first began as eleven-year-olds, bright eyed and excited for what was to come. Now, they were frazzled fifteen- or sixteen-year-olds who looked like they haven't had a decent amount of sleep since they were eleven. Corinna certainly felt that way as she considered how to approach her studying.

The Easter holidays also found them looking over pamphlets about the various careers that they had to look forward to, along with having a meeting with the head of house about their options and how to proceed, assuming you have all the O.W.L.s you would need. Hers was scheduled with McGonagall for the very next morning during History of Magic.

Corinna took the pamphlet from Ron about becoming a Healer. It was very demanding as one needed at least an E in numerous classes. She knew she would at least get that with Potions and Defense. Her Charms were passable enough, but she was partially worried about Herbology and Transfiguration. She fancied the idea of helping others, and she already had connections with Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted. She also despised anything that had to do with the Ministry, so she definitely was not going to follow in her cousin's footsteps.

Fred and George joined them and mentioned that Harry wanted to talk to Sirius. Corinna remembered asking Dora about that after their trip to St. Mungo's and it was a wild and crazy tale involving a change in secret keepers for the Potters to someone who ultimately betrayed them, a showdown with said betrayer where he managed to frame Sirius for the murders, and so, so much more. Corinna could barely follow along and kept stopping Dora to ask questions to clarify things.

"You know, I could help," Corinna volunteered after Fred and George told them their plan to create a distraction so Harry could use Umbridge's fireplace to talk to Sirius. "Really throw her off the scent."

"Are you up to the challenge?" asked George.

"Who do you think it was that confunded Montague," she reminded as she crossed her arms. "It would be my pleasure to be involved in something like this." She glanced over at Harry and her heart jumped, but he seemed distracted.

Hermione looked like she was about to have a cow, but Corinna did not care. Just because she wasn't going to be an Auror like Dora doesn't mean she can't make her proud in other ways.

In the middle of History of Magic, Corinna left and made her way to McGonagall's office. Once Lavender Brown's appointment was up, she was called in. McGonagall was sitting behind her desk as expected. However, she did not expect Umbridge to be sitting next to the desk with a quill in hand. She gave Corinna a wide smile and it took all her willpower not to cringe.

"Have a seat, Miss Crouch," McGonagall said as she shifted through a file on her desk. She noticed that Corinna's eyes kept darting over to Umbridge, she continued. "Our Headmistress is sitting in during the career consultations." Corinna noted a tone of disdain. Apparently, their real headmaster would not have done such a thing. "I assume you have considered your career options carefully. I am here to see if it would be a right fit, and what we can do to either fix things or continue with the current course of action."

"Of course," said Corinna. She hadn't expected Umbridge to be there, but she decided against changing what she had planned. "I was thinking about becoming a healer."

"That is a difficult career to get into," said McGonagall as she ignored Umbridge's attempts to draw attention to herself with her usual girly "ahem." "You will need to continue your education after you obtain your N.E.W.T.s, but right now we will focus on what you will need for your O.W.L.s. Your potions are perfect. I think you even have more outstandings than Miss Granger, not that I am comparing my students." After another "ahem," she spoke up louder. "Your Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms are good as you have almost consistently get—yes, Dolores?"

"I am sorry to interrupt, Minerva." Corinna found that statement laughable but kept her face void of humor. "But, I have to admit that I am confused. I thought you confided in me that you had interest in working for the Ministry."

"I considered all the options before me, Professor Umbridge," said Corinna as if the line were rehearsed. "I simply find that I am drawn to becoming a healer more than any of the others I had read about."

"I am sorry to hear that," said Umbridge. "There is an opening for an internship within your father's old department. I was considering putting your name in for consideration."

"Which one?" Knowing what the Weasley twins had planned (well, at least knowing something was planned) and her role in making sure Harry didn't get caught, she couldn't help but feel a little rebellious. "He was the disgraced Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement before he was demoted to Head of International Magical Cooperation."

"As I was saying," said McGonagall loudly before Umbridge could interrupt again. "I am sorry to see that Transfiguration is one of your weaker subjects. You will need to study a lot of it you want that exceeds expectations during your examinations, especially during the practical."

"Can I ask why the sudden change of heart?" asked Umbridge before McGonagall could continue with her statement.

"You can ask," said McGonagall coolly and Umbridge flapped her mouth open as if she was trying to catch a fly. "Now, let's finish this up so we don't go over as we did with Miss Brown. Herbology is another one you should focus on. Your practical should be fine as Professor Sprout mentioned you have a good grasp on how to handle the plants, but it's mostly the theory there you should focus your studies. Now, for your electives. They are completely optional for this chosen career path, although Care of Magical Creatures does have a unit about animal injuries during your seventh year if you do continue with that course."

"Especially once we get a competent teacher on the post," added Umbridge.

"We are not hear to discuss teachers," said McGonagall, but she looked like she wanted to say something else. "We are here about Miss Crouch's continued education so she could become a healer. Did you have any alternatives that you would like to look into just in case those plans fall through."

After giving a couple of alternatives, which Corinna made sure had nothing to do with the Ministry, McGonagall dismissed her. Corinna walked out of the office to Umbridge talking loudly.

Corinna didn't care what Umbridge had to say about her career. If her grandfather hadn't turned her off to the idea of being a Ministry sycophant, dealing with Umbridge certainly has.

She let that feeling carry her throughout the day. She wasn't even annoyed when Hermione had decided to turn her anger onto Corinna for volunteering to help with such things. She just tuned her out and focused on the page they were supposed to be translating together.

"If you back off," Hermione hissed, "Harry might back off as well."

"Why would he do that because of me?" asked Corinna, not looking up from her book as she looked up what a peculiar symbol meant.

Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't say anything as Professor Babbling headed over to them to check on their progress.

As they walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts later that afternoon, Corinna noted how Umbridge looked even angrier than she had during her career consultation earlier. It was obvious who she kept glaring at, and Corinna could only imagine how Harry's consultation went since he did mention interest in becoming an Auror.

Hermione had not let up her dissuasion against Harry. Corinna could hear her whispering to him when she tried to focus on the textbook, not that she ever really read the book at this point. She had asked Dora to send her old Defense notes that helped her with the O.W.L.s. It was invaluable, and she duplicated it to hand out to the old D.A. members. Some thought that she was still a traitor, but it didn't stop them from accepting the study material.

Would a traitor risk expulsion so someone could talk to their godfather?

As they were being dismissed, an explosion could be heard, right at five o'clock as Fred and George had promised. Hermione was still begging Harry to reconsider when Umbridge ran from the classroom as quickly as her little legs could carry her.

Harry made a break for it and Corinna could barely keep up as the weaved in between students. They made it to where Umbridge's office was located. Harry hid behind a suit of armor and Corinna tried to control her breathing as she stood by the door. There weren't many students hanging out in the corridor as most went to see what the explosion was. Corinna distracted a group of stragglers by making up some ridiculous rule so Harry could use a knife that could unlock any door while under his once-mythical invisibility cloak. Once he closed the door again, Corinna stood in front of the door with her arms firmly crossed. No one would suspect that one of her Inquisitorial Squad would be guarding her door.

The minutes ticked by and Corinna secretly wondered what Harry was talking about. He had been distracted all throughout the Easter holidays. She just hoped that it helps.

There wasn't anyone in the corridor, so she was shocked to see Filch dancing down the hall. She gave a sharp knock on the door to hopefully draw Harry back to the castle.

"And what are you doing here?" asked Filch as he stopped in front of Corinna.

Besides not making it to the toilet during the school stomach bug outbreak during their first year, Corinna had not been face-to-face with Filch's wrath before. He hated all the students for whatever reason, and his list of banned items attached to his office door grew almost every day.

"I got a tip that someone was going to break into Umbridge's office and leave dungbombs," Corinna explained, making sure to adjust her robes so that the badge would be more noticeable. "Figured I could scare them off while Professor Umbridge deals with whatever is going on in the North Tower."

Filch looked Corinna over with narrow eyes. "Well, I have something very important to pick up for the Headmistress," he said, "so I would appreciate it if you would get out of my way."

Hoping to Merlin Harry was underneath his cloak, Corinna stepped aside and Filch barged through. He gave another jig as he opened a drawer and started rifling through it. "Approval for whipping," he muttered to himself. "I can do it at last! They've had it coming to them for years!" He pulled out the piece of parchment and clutched it to his chest like a lovesick woman might do when she received a letter from her beau in one of the muggle romance novels Corinna liked to read.

Corinna gave Filch an odd look and he immediately froze. He straightened up. "I must get this to the Headmistress. Those Weasleys will finally get what they deserve after all these years!"

Filch rushed passed Corinna and she stood by the office door. "Thanks," Harry said from behind, but he was still invisible under the cloak. She ushered for him to move out of the office and she closed the door. They rushed down the stairs and Harry removed the cloak on the landing below. They followed the excitement and shouting all the way down to the Entrance Hall. Everyone was crowded around. She noticed members of the Inquisitorial Squad standing around with their wands trained on the Weasley twins. High above with the poltergeist, Peeves, who was always at the wrong place at the wrong time, in Corinna's opinion. Umbridge was just a few steps below where they were standing, looking triumphant.

"So you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred. He appeared to be his usual cocky self, standing next to his brother. You would have thought they were standing around in a crowd showing off their latest wares in the common room instead of cornered in the Entrance Hall.

"I've got the form, Headmistress!" shouted Filch as he elbowed his way through the crowd. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting. Oh, let me do it now!"

Umbridge nodded curtly. "You two—" she looked back at Fred and George "—are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what? I don't think we are." Fred looked over at George. "I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself."

"Time to test our talents in the real world, do you reckon?"

"Definitely."

"Accio brooms!"

There was a loud crash in the distance. Harry dragged Corinna down just in time as two brooms whizzed passed them and made their way down to Fred and George who easily caught them, even if one of them still had an iron chain on it.

"We won't be seeing you."

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch."

They mounted their brooms and looked out at the students. "If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley—Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat!"

"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad below started moving in towards Fred and George. They had kicked off and started flying out of the Entrance Hall.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves!"

Even students took what Fred shouted at the poltergeist to heart as everyone seemed to want to make Umbridge's life a living hell from then on. Corinna had to sit in on two different groups of detentions as students used the Skiving Snackboxes in droves to avoid going to Umbridge's class. However, since none of them spilled, and Corinna easily pretended not to know the source of their ailments, she had no choice but to let those who were vomiting, bleeding, or fainting out of her class.

While many of the others in the Inquisitorial Squad were running around to try to stop miscreants, she let it happen since those that mattered weren't paying attention to her anyway. They were too busy being pulled in a million different ways.

As the weather was turning nice, Corinna and Terry decided to soak it up, even if that meant getting one of the bedspreads and laying it out onto the lawn with all their study supplies and going over their materials. There wasn't much talking between the two of them, occasionally a snarky comment or two, but they were together focusing on their own separate topics.

In fact, Corinna had considered not going to the finally quidditch game of the season. She didn't think she could stand Terry terrorizing her the whole time. But he convinced her to go, saying that this was going to be their last exciting thing to happen for the rest of the year. Grudgingly, she joined him in the stands. She was fully prepared for his gloating as, in the beginning, especially when Ron let in that first goal within a minute of the whistle being blown. "There's still time to bet, Crouch," Terry jeered as he clapped loudly.

But it was as if a switch was flipped. Ron blocked a couple of goals and he seemed to get a rhythm to it. The two beaters managed to actually hit the other team instead of themselves. And Ginny seemed to time catching the snitch just right so that Gryffindor had enough points to win the cup.

"What was that about betting, Boot?" Corinna shouted as she joined in with her fellow Gryffindors. They all started to sing "Weasley is Our King" but someone along the way changed it that incapsulated the fact that Ron was a good keeper.

"I thought you didn't care about house loyalty," Terry muttered under his breath. Corinna just ignored him and sang along with the crowd.

So, maybe Corinna could see the appeal in quidditch.

The euphoria of winning the quidditch despite being the ones who were unfavored to win last all of the weekend for Corinna. She could only tease and jeer at Terry before it got old and focusing on studies. Now that June had arrived, everything was raised to a fever pitch. If students weren't panicking before about studying, they certainly were now. Lessons no longer included homework as they were used more for a review of what they would need to know for their O.W.L.s and an encourage as to what materials to study.

Corinna stared at the exam timetables that McGonagall passed out during one of the Transfigurations lessons. This came with many, many warnings against cheating and what was banned within the exam halls and what the expectations from their dear headmistress were. Not that it should encourage anyone to purposefully fail, mind you, as everyone's futures were on the line.

As she looked over the timetable, she was relieved to see that there wasn't anything scheduled for her birthday. That day was going to be hard enough without adding exams or revisions into the mix.

Charms theory was set for Monday morning, with the afternoon dedicated to the practical. Although that was a strong subject for them, Corinna and Terry still poured over their books and notes and testing each other. They also moved onto practicing some of the charms they were expected to perform during the practical. They decided to break for dinner when Corinna accidentally tried to summon the book in Terry's hand instead of the one she was aiming for, and caused it to hit him in the nose.

"Are you sure you don't see any blood?" asked Terry as they trudged from the beautiful outside to the dim inside. He kept putting his fingers to his nose and inspecting them closely. "I feel like there's blood."

"I already apologized," Corinna defended. "Do you want me to try a healing charm?"

"Not even if my life depended on it," said Terry blandly.

They split up in the Great Hall and Corinna could barely stomach the idea of eating anything, but she choked down some soup and shoved bread in her mouth. She went up to her dorm before most everyone else was done eating. Her and Terry decided not to meet up after dinner as decided to focus on the theories on their own. It was hard to focus anymore on the material, so she found herself going to bed early, even if she just stared at the canopy of her four-poster. She tried to read one of her novels, but it was as if her brain decided to no longer have the ability to read, so she just stared until her body eventually fell into a fitful sleep.


	6. In Which Dumbledore's Army Takes a Stand

The next morning, she could only stomach tea, and that was only because she knew that it would be worse if she didn't get the caffeine in her system. She just hoped that she could remember the theory. As long as she remembered what incantation went to what spell, she would be fine for the practical as long as she didn't try to summon Terry's book again.

After breakfast, the fifth and seventh years milled around while all the other years went to class. No one really spoke above a subdued whisper. Corinna just shifted on the balls of her feet, trying to go through what she could remember from memory. Eventually, they were called in class by class. The long house tables were gone and replaced with individual desks in an organized grid. She had the quill she received for Christmas in her hand as she waited for McGonagall to announce that they could begin. Once the hourglass was turned, everyone shuffled their papers and tucked into their first examination.

Corinna already felt drained as the long tables were replaced for lunch. This time, she managed to choke down some food as her stomach was now protesting for food. She was almost glad that Terry wasn't in her house as she didn't want to think about the Charm examination anymore for the rest of her life.

After lunch, they went to a side chamber off the Great Hall where they were called in alphabetical order in small groups. Terry went in with the first group and he looked pale. Not for the first time, Corinna wished her surname wasn't so close to the beginning of the alphabet. She would much rather have the extra time to practice like some of her other classmates got to. When Corinna's name was called at the end of the second group, she shakily followed the others inside.

On the whole, Corinna thought she did okay. She did cause a wineglass to crack where she was supposed to place it down gently. She thought that she was definitely within the exceeds expectations range.

But there wasn't time to relax as Transfigurations was the next day. This one was one that Corinna needed to work harder on. Since Terry was better off in that class, according to Flitwick, he tested Corinna and helped her with the spellwork in a spare classroom where others were also studying like their lives depended on it.

After an alright theory and then what she thought was an utter failure of a practical as her examiner could still see the faint coloring of the polecat she was supposed to vanish, she dove back into studying hard for her Herbology exam the next day. She thought she did much better than she did with her Transfigurations work, but she also felt like she was losing her mind. Before she went down to the Great Hall on Thursday for her Defense Against the Dark Arts examination, she had thrown her hair into a top bun as she couldn't remember the last time she showered and that was the only thing she could do with it.

Terry had a break on Friday as it was the day scheduled for Ancient Runes, so he volunteered to help Corinna study the night before. "Are you saying ehwaz or eihwaz?" Corinna asked after Terry read out a line she was supposed to translate.

"They sound the same to me."

"Is there an 'i' or not, Boot?" Corinna couldn't help but snap. After a tense sigh, she quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. Why don't I just stick to the flash cards."

"Good idea," said Terry coolly.

After the examination, Corinna and Hermione walked back to Gryffindor Tower together. As much as she did not to talk about Ancient Runes ever again, her and Hermione talked about what they thought they did and didn't translate correctly. Corinna slowly realized that she made quite a few mistakes as Hermione was the one most likely of the two of them to be correct.

The only thing that didn't make Corinna spiral was the idea that she didn't have to continue with Ancient Runes next year if she didn't want to. It wasn't a requirement to be a healer.

As they passed by Umbridge's office, there was a loud crash and some shrieking. Corinna was tempted to keep walking, but the door busted open as Umbridge tried to fight off a niffler from going after her leg. Knowing she had to do something now, she whipped out her wand cast, "Wingardium Leviosa," to cause the niffler to float in the air instead of attacking Umbridge.

"Thank you, Miss Crouch," said Umbridge as she straightened her cardigan and made sure the little bow on her head was still aloft. "It was that half-breed Hagrid! I am sure of it!"

Corinna thought about releasing the niffler, but kept it in the air as it chirped indignantly.

"But, Professor," said Hermione, "he's currently teaching a class. He wouldn't have been able to do something like this."

"You mark my words," said Umbridge in a rage. She stalked down the corridor, causing a few students to shift out of the way or else they would get bowled over.

"That horrid, horrid…gah!" Hermione also seemed fried from their week of examinations and heavy revisions. "Whoever is doing this needs to stop! They are going to get Hagrid in trouble."

"Yes, I understand," said Corinna, "but what am I supposed to do with this niffler? I'd release it back into her office, but I don't want her to blame Hagrid."

"Let's take it down," suggested Hermione. "We should warn him anyway."

Corinna nodded. "Locomotor niffler," she said and the two of them walked back down the stairs.

They made it down to his hut while he was still in the middle of class. They were studying unicorns and the boys in the group were hanging back, looking put-out. Corinna remembered that lesson with Grubby-Plank, and she had to admit that she enjoyed getting to pet them.

"Corinna, Hermione," Hagrid said in surprise, especially when he spotted the still-floating niffler. "Why d'you go' a niffler?"

"It was put in Umbridge's office," said Hermione shrilly as Corinna lowered the niffler into Hagrid's outstretched hand. "Hagrid, listen…" She recounted what they witnessed from Umbridge. "You have to be careful."

"Don' worry 'bout me, Hermione," reassured Hagrid. "Jus' remember what I asked ya."

"Do I want to know?" asked Corinna as they headed back to the castle, but it looked like Hermione wanted to keep arguing with Hagrid, but he forced her to go so he could finish the lesson.

"No," said Hermione plainly.

The weekend was a subdued affair as they focused on their next set of exams, but Corinna still took some time to finally take care of herself. A shower was very much welcomed, as was studying outside with Terry as they had been trapped in the castle all week and unable to fully enjoy the warmth and sunshine. A sad fact Corinna realized was how taking the niffler to Hagrid was the first time she had been outside since Sunday.

Corinna was not worried about Potions on Monday. The theory exam in the morning went well enough and, without Snape breathing down their necks the entire time, it seemed that most every did much better than they would normally do in class. For the first time, however, Corinna felt like she actually accomplished an outstanding instead of just hoping for an exceeds expectations.

Tuesday was Care of Magical Creatures which Corinna thought she had done alright in, but it was another one of those subjects where she wanted to do well on principle, but she wasn't worried about moving onto the NEWTs of. She liked Hagrid well enough and didn't want him to be sacked, but she would rather focus on the classes that were necessary for what she wanted to do with her life.

Wednesday morning was the Astronomy theory exam which she thought had gone alright. As the practical wasn't until that evening and Corinna didn't have another exam, she had the afternoon off. She used it going over charts in the library. Terry joined her after his Divination exam and he looked miffed.

"I didn't see a bloody thing in the crystal ball," he chewed out, which was much too loud for Madam Pince to tolerate so they were given a sharp quip about this being a place for studying, not talking.

"That was never your strongest subject," said Corinna softly as she handed over the charts she had already studied.

"I don't even think I'll get an acceptable." Terry looked miserable at the thought. "I wasn't going to take it next year, but I didn't want to outright fail. You know what I mean?"

Corinna thought of her poor performance in Ancient Runes. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

At eleven o'clock, they made their way up to the Astronomy Tower. Much to Corinna's chagrin, she was positioned next to Harry. She pointedly stared in front of her as she set up her telescope. Once they were given the okay, they looked through the telescope and started marking their blank star charts. It was silent as the castle was quiet and the breeze was light. The only noises around them were the scratching of quills and the occasional adjustment of someone's telescope. Corinna was able to fully focus on filling out her chart until about halfway through their time, she heard a loud bark. She automatically looked across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin. She squinted to see numerous silhouettes against the lit windows. She counted six in total as they stepped into the cabin. Corinna hadn't been inside there before, but she had a feeling that it would be cramped in there with six people, Hagrid, and his dog.

She glanced over and saw that Harry was also transfixed on what was happening down in Hagrid's cabin. She quickly averted her gaze when she heard one of the professors walking towards them. Harry pretended to add notes to his chart while Corinna made to adjust her telescope to find another constellation. She didn't even know what she was looking at when she heard a loud, distinct roar coming from the cabin.

"Try and concentrate," the professor encouraged softly.

Corinna was still transfixed on the cabin, even after the announcement that they only had twenty minutes remaining. She shook her head and made to label something when there was a loud bang. Her gaze darted back over to Hagrid's cabin as the door burst open. A massive figure had come roaring out surrounded by the silhouette of six others. There were flashes of red light, the obvious sign that they were attempting to stun Hagrid. Hermione squeaked out a "No!" and the professor's warning fell on deaf ears as everyone was now transfixed on what was happening down in the cabin. There was an exchange of harsh words, and Corinna could see that one of the stunning spells hit Hagrid's dog, Fang. There was a howl of fury and one of the silhouettes went flying. She looked over and saw that Harry looked scared. Despite knowing Hagrid the best, it seemed that he also hadn't seen Hagrid have a temper like this.

"Look!" Parvati pointed to the foot of the castle as the doors were thrown open and a lone shadow strolled across the lawn. A second warning about how much time was left was also ignored as the person was now sprinting towards Hagrid's cabin.

"How dare you!" the figured shouted, and Corinna immediately recognized McGonagall's angry voice anywhere. "Leave him alone! Alone, I say! On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such—"

A scream was trapped in Corinna's throat as four stunning spells had shot from the figures around the cabin. They met McGonagall who was only halfway to the cabin. She seemed to glow red as she was lifted off her feet. She landed heavily onto her back and then was perfectly still.

"Outrageous behavior!" shouted the professor, who also seemed to have forgotten about the exam they were supposed to be taking. Hagrid was shouting about how they were all cowards, and swiped at a couple of the figures who were immediately knocked out cold from the landing. He had bent down to pick Fang back up and then was running for the forest. Umbridge's command to go after Hagrid was met with reluctance as no one wanted to be on the wrong end of an angry Hagrid.

Corinna wouldn't be surprised if she had failed the practical, and she found that she couldn't even pretend to care. She haphazardly put her telescope back in the case and followed with the crowd down the stairs. Despite the late hour, sleep was the last thing on everyone's mind.

"That evil woman!" sputtered Hermione. "Trying to sneak up on Hagrid in the dead of night!"

"She clearly wanted to avoid another scene like Trelawney's," Corinna pointed out as she squeezed to join them.

"Hagrid did well, didn't he?" said Ron. "How come all the spells bounced off him?"

"It'll be his giant blood," explained Hermione. "It's very hard to stun a giant, they're like trolls, really tough. But, poor Professor McGonagall…four stunners straight in the chest and she's not exactly young, is she?"

"Bloody dreadful," Terry muttered as he managed to join them.

People were filtering towards their various common rooms, but the five of them fell behind the crowd.

"At least they didn't get to take Hagrid off to Azkaban," said Ron. "I suspect he's gone to join Dumbledore, hasn't he?"

"I suppose so," said Hermione. "Oh, this is awful. I really thought Dumbledore would be back before long, but now we've lost Hagrid, too."

Terry looked reluctant to go to his own common room as they split off to go to their respected Towers. The common room was full of commotion from what had happened out on the grounds had woke a few people. There was only one topic of discussion currently.

"But why sack Hagrid now?" asked Angelina Johnson, a seventh year who was also the Gryffindor quidditch captain. "It's not like Trelawney. He's been teaching much better than usual this year."

"Umbridge hates part-humans," said Hermione bitterly. She bodily threw herself into an armchair. "She was always going to try to get Hagrid out."

"And she thought Hagrid was putting nifflers in her office," said Corinna as she crossed her arms.

"Blimey," said Lee Jordan, looking surprised. "It's me who's been putting the nifflers in her office. Fred and George left me a couple. I've been levitating them in through her window."

"She'd have sacked him anyway," said Dean. "He was too close to Dumbledore."

"That's true," said Harry.

"I just hope Professor McGonagall's all right," said Lavender.

"They carried her back up to the castle, we watched through the window," said Colin Creevey who was in the year below Corinna. "She didn't look very well."

"Madam Pomfrey will sort her out," said Alicia Spinnet, a Gryffindor seeker. "She's never failed yet."

Corinna excused herself to bed a little bit after that, even though she did not think she was going to sleep that night. All she saw was red whenever she closed her eyes. After a fitful night of tossing and turning, she woke and dressed for the day. Anger burned within her when she saw Umbridge at breakfast that morning. She drank as much tea as she could manage, wondering if she should just switch over to coffee at this point, even if it was bitter and depressing.

She met Terry in the library after breakfast as their final exam, History of Magic, was scheduled for that afternoon. They did their best to revise, but between the excitement of their last exam and the lack of sleep, it was all they could to not fall asleep sitting there.

At lunch, Corinna drank coffee, which was tolerable with plenty of cream and sugar. She also managed to eat some actual food as she could feel herself getting jittery. She wasn't the only one who seemed to be experimenting with the drink that was always on the table but was only favored by a few of the older students. Corinna would much rather stick to tea, but she knew she needed something stronger to get through her final exam.

As the students filed into the hall again after lunch with the similar grid of tables as was the norm for all their theory exams, Corinna felt a little bit more awake. She took her seat and waited impatiently for the professor at the front of the hall to flip over the hourglass and told them to begin.

Just need to get through this, Corinna thought as she looked over the first question. She scratched out her answer, wondering how much detail she really needed to get into in order to get full marks. Missing exact dates and names was going to be inevitable especially as it seemed that the exam was never ending. Whenever Corinna turned a page, there seemed to be another. She knew she was going to run out of time at this rate.

And then someone screamed.

Corinna turned sharply, as did everyone else in the hall. The professor who was stalking the other side, came rushing over and bent down the fallen student. She had to lean over farther to see who it was. She froze when she saw that it was Harry, writhing in pain on the floor as he clutched his forehead. "Back to your examinations, boys and girls," the professor said as he helped Harry stand up and ushered him out of the hall.

There were the beginnings of whispers, but the other professor reminded them that they were still in an examination and that they still had a few minutes left. Corinna turned back at her table and knew she would no longer be able to focus on the last answer she was writing. The professor who escorted Harry out came back in, collected his examination papers, and went back up to the front. "Five minutes left," he announced.

It was one of the longest five minutes of her life. Once time was up and their exams were magicked to the professors, Corinna followed after Ron and Hermione as they were also desperate to go find Harry. "Do you think he actually went to the hospital wing?" asked Hermione.

"Don't reckon," mumbled Ron as they fought against the crowd of students who were trying to go anywhere but to where the classrooms were. "Why are you following us?" he asked Corinna.

Before she could come up with a plausible answer, Hermione just grabbed each of their arms to usher them faster. "Shut up, Ron!" she hissed.

He had went to the Hospital Wing, but he did not stay. He had asked Madam Pomfrey where McGonagall was and, upon finding out that she had been transferred to St. Mungo's, ran off.

The continued up towards the seventh floor where Gryffindor Tower was and relief flooded over them when they saw Harry a few landings below. He quickly ushered them into an empty classroom. His eyes were wild and kept darting between the three of them. If he was confused by Corinna's sudden inclusion, he didn't mention it.

"Voldemort's got Sirius." When the three of them expressed their shock and confusion, he continued. "Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam." Hermione stammered out a couple of questions. "I don't know how. But I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls and they're at the end of Row Ninety-Seven. He's been trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there. He's torturing him; says he'll end up killing him!"

Corinna was rooted in place. She didn't know her cousin very well beyond what Dora told her, but no one—especially someone who had been through what Sirius had—deserved to be tortured by You-Know-Who.

"How are we going to get there?" asked Harry.

There was a beat of silence. "Get there?" asked Ron.

"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!"

Corinna couldn't believe what she was hearing. And, it seemed, neither could Ron or Hermione. Harry challenged them and, for once, Corinna was afraid to take the bait. "Harry," said Hermione softly, "how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?"

"How do I know? The question is how we're going to get in there!"

"Harry, think about this." Corinna stayed where she was when Hermione took a tentative step. She didn't even know what was going on, but she knew one thing for certain. "It's five o'clock in the afternoon. The Ministry of Magic is full of workers. How would You-Know-Who and Sirius have gotten in without being seen?"

"They're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world," added Hermione. "You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"

"I don't know. Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something! Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been—"

"You've never been there, Harry," Hermione reminded. "You've dreamed about the place, that's all."

"They're not normal dreams!" Harry shouted and got in their faces. His hands were visibly shaking. "How do you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?"

"He's got a point," said Ron.

"But this sounds unlikely," said Hermione. "Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"

"Sirius might have cracked and just wanted some fresh air," said Ron. "He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages."

"But why on earth would Voldemort want to use Sirius to get the weapon, or whatever the thing is?"

The back and forth between the three of them was faster than a quidditch match as Corinna desperately tried to follow along, but it seemed that the more they said, the more she became confused. She wanted answers, but she could not get a word in edgewise.

"This isn't a criticism, Harry," Hermione said after fighting with Harry and Ron singlehanded. "But you do sort of have a saving-people thing."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

Hermione tried to explain her position on the matter and backtracking when Harry started getting angry as she tried to get her point across. "You are the type of person to rush to Sirius's aid," she said after dodging a bit. "What if he's just trying to get you into the Department of Mysteries."

"Hermione, it doesn't matter. They've taken McGonagall to St. Mungo's, there isn't anyone from the Order left at Hogwarts who we can tell, and if we don't go, Sirius is dead!"

"What if it was just a dream?"

Harry then launched into a tirade about how it couldn't have been a dream because he had been forced to learn Occlumency. More Hermione trying to be reasonable. More Harry yelling. Corinna was almost on her last nerve when two others poked their heads into the classroom.

"Hi," said Ginny as her and Luna stepped forward. "We recognized Harry's voice. What are you yelling about?" She raised her eyebrows when Harry dismissed her. "There's no need to take that tone with me. I was only wondering whether I could help."

"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna.

Harry swore in a way that would make Dora proud, and Hermione had an epiphany. "Wait, Harry, they can help. Let's just check to see if Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London. If we find out he's not there, then I swear I won't try to stop you. I'll come. I'll do whatever it takes to try and save him." Before Harry could argue, she added, "If this is a trick of Voldemort's, Harry, we've got to check. We've got to. We'll use Umbridge's fire and see if we can contact him. We'll draw Umbridge away again, but we'll need lookouts, and that's where we can use Ginny and Luna."

Harry kept arguing, but the plan unfolded and it was easier than rushing off to the Ministry of Magic if they didn't have to. However, he took Hermione's offer to accompany him into Umbridge's office as a form of solidarity. He still seemed reluctant, but ran off to get his invisibility cloak and knife. The others went to the end of Umbridge's corridor and, once Harry rejoined them, they split off to their respective posts.

Ron and Corinna broke off from the others. Ron went to either make a mess of the Transfigurations department or enlist Peeves's help to do so. Corinna was the one to go head off Umbridge before she could get into the Great Hall and tell her about the mess in the department. As the one that was part of the unfortunate Inquisitorial Squad, her telling Umbridge gave more credence and wouldn't be questioned as much.

Unfortunately, Umbridge was talking with a couple of the others in the Squad, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini, when Corinna found her. It didn't take much to convince her that Peeves was making a ruckus as he did that as often as possible. The group followed after Corinna as she lead them to the first floor and to the Transfigurations department. It seemed that Ron hadn't found Peeves as there wasn't any loud noises. Corinna saw various instruments upended and Ron milling around as the only one in the corridor.

When Umbridge made no move into the department, she smiled wickedly at Corinna and Ron.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" asked Umbridge. Before Ron or Corinna could react, the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad gagged them and tackled them into the wall. "Did you really think I wouldn't have Stealth Sensoring Spells in place to know about those horrid creatures scavenging through my office?"

Ron and Corinna were dragged to Umbridge's office, which wasn't much of a surprise at this point. The other members of the Inquisitorial Squad must have been notified as they had rushed Luna and Ginny. A large, beefy Slytherin also had Neville bound and gagged, saying that he was trying to prevent Ginny's capture, so he dragged him along, too.

A Slytherin girl in Corinna's year (Millicent Something…) held onto Hermione as Umbridge dragged Harry from the fire and had him bound to a chair. The others were filed into the office. They were all removed of their wands. Umbridge looked about her office. "Tut, tut," she said when her eyes landed back onto Corinna. She removed her gag. She grabbed the small badge from Corinna's chest and pulled it off, ripping her robes in the process. "I hope you know this means that you are stripped of your membership into the Inquisitorial Squad."

"Is that supposed to make me feel sad?" Corinna asked and Parkinson slammed her against the wall. She bit her tongue from crying out in pain from her left arm getting the brunt of the blow. "I didn't even want to join in the first place. You threatened me."

"And you should have thought about that before helping Potter and his little friends," said Umbridge darkly. "You were lying to me this whole time. I should have known when that piece of parchment kept spitting out nonsense." Parkinson shoved Corinna more as Umbridge leaned obnoxiously close to Corinna's ear. "Do you really want me telling everyone who your real parents are?"

Without saying anything, Corinna spat in Umbridge's face, which felt like a much better insult than anything she could come up with on the spot. Umbridge stepped back in disgust and wiped the spit from her cheek. "Consider that grounds for expulsion."

"When do I get to leave?" Parkinson slammed her against the wall again. More sharp pain. "You berk! That's my wand arm!"

Umbridge waved her wand and Corinna was gagged again. Parkinson leaned her full weight onto Corinna now, cackling. But Corinna paid her no mind. Did Umbridge not know anything and decided just to play on Corinna's insecurities? "Now," she said, turning back to the group at large after having her fun with her old plaything. She went right back to Harry. "You stationed lookouts around my office and you sent these buffoons," she nodded to Ron and Corinna and Malfoy laughed loudly. "to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly well that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes. Mr. Filch having just informed me so and I was about to send Miss Parkinson and Mr. Zabini to help him sort it out. I was smart not to inform Crouch about the spells I placed in my office for this very occasion."

"Clearly, it was very important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she is still too ill to talk to anyone.

Many of the Inquisitorial Squad laughed at that, with Malfoy being the loudest.

"It's none of your business who I talk to."

"Very well," said Umbridge as a nasty smile spread across her face. She was darkly gleeful. "Very well, Mr. Potter. I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco, fetch Professor Snape."

Corinna had to crane her head to look over at Harry who looked like he was slapped. They were all so stupid to forget that there was one other person left in the castle who was a part of the Order of the Phoenix. He came back with Malfoy a few minutes later. He surveyed what was going on in the office with a bored look. "You wanted to see me, Headmistress."

"Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can, please."

"You took my last bottle to interrogate students," said Snape. "Surely you did not use it all? I told you that three drops would be sufficient."

"You can make some more, can't you?"

"Certain. It takes a full moon-cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in around a month."

Umbridge looked indignant. "A month? But I need it this evening, Snape! I have just found Potter using my fire to communicate with a person or persons unknown!"

"Really? Well, it doesn't surprise me. Potter has never shown much inclination to follow school rules."

"I wish to interrogate him! I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force him to tell me the truth."

Corinna may not like Snape that much, but she had to agree that even with his potion expertise, he wouldn't be able to make truth serum in a shorter amount of time. Of course, he just had to suggest poisoning Harry as an alternative so there went any good graces.

"You are on probation!" Umbridge shrieked, acting as a toddler would if they weren't given sweets when they demanded. "You are being deliberately unhelpful! Now get out of my office!"

Snape turned to leave, but paused when Harry shouted, "He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!"

He turned to face Harry. On Umbridge's demanded to explain, he simply said, "I have no idea. Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little. If Longbottom suffocates, it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job." With that, Snape left, slamming the door closed behind him.

Umbridge's eyes were wide and wild as she looked over Harry. She started babbling nonsense about how it was a matter of Ministry security…what the Minister doesn't know won't hurt him…circumstances justify the use… "The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue!"

"No!" shrieked Hermione. "It's illegal!" When Umbridge continued to ignore her, she pressed. "The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law."

"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him. He never knew I ordered Dementors to go after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him, all the same."

"It was you!" said Harry. "You sent the dementors after me?"

"Somebody had to act!" said Umbridge, pointing her wand directly at Harry's forehead. "They were all bleating about silencing you somehow. But I was the one who actually did something about it. Only you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now."

But before Umbridge could utter the curse, Hermione shouted, "No! No, Harry, we'll have to tell her!"

"No way!"

"We'll have to Harry, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's…what's the point?" And much to Corinna's shock, Hermione began to cry weakly.

"Well, well, well! Little Miss Question-All is going to give us some answers! Come on then, girl, come on!"

Ron tried to utter out a plea for Hermione to stop behind his gag, and others around the room where staring in bewilderment. But Corinna could see the signs. As someone who has had to lie a lot her entire life, she could tell when someone was laying it on thick enough to coat a wall. She was playing right into Umbridge's hands by saying exactly what she wanted to hear. She told of Harry trying to contact Dumbledore to tell him that it was ready. When Umbridge demanded to know what it was, Hermione kept the lie going by saying that they didn't fully understand what it was—a weapon, they reckoned. And it was soon decided that Umbridge would take Hermione and Harry to the weapon as she was afraid of what the others would do with it. Corinna had to admit that it was quite clever.

So they were all alone with just the Inquisitorial Squad. Malfoy straightened up from where he was lounging against the desk. "Knew it would be the mudblood who would crack first," he sneered, which made Ron buck to get away from Warrington. "Cleverest witch of her age, my—agh!" Ginny had managed to wiggle her way out of her captor's grasp to hit Malfoy with a bat-bogey hex. He fell back as bats flew out of his nose and started attacking his face. A few of the others had let up to go help him, which was just dumb on their part as everyone still had their wands. Spells went flying, and Corinna was more than happy to hit Parkinson with a stunner, even if it wasn't as accurate with her nondominant hand, but she had to work the kinks out of her left arm first.

She ducked down to pluck Harry's and Hermione's wands from inside Malfoy's robes. "What was that?" she asked when he tried to speak around the bats. "Sorry, I'd stick around and chat. But I've got more important things to do."

Ron, Corinna, Ginny, Luna, and Neville all looked at each other. They all looked determined, even Neville, who even knew less of what was going on than Corinna, Ginny, and Luna. It was a silent agreement about what they needed to do as they ran out of the office and made their way to where Harry, Hermione, and Umbridge disappeared into the Forbidden Forest.

The five of them managed to find Harry and Hermione in the Forbidden Forest, covered in blood but otherwise unharmed. They recounted their escape, and Harry and Hermione explained how they managed to get Umbridge taken away by Centaurs and then they only escaped because of Grawp, who was apparently Hagrid's half-brother. It was quite the tale, Corinna had to admit.

But then they had to deal with the problem before them: how were they going to get to London.

"Well, we'll have to fly, of course," said Luna breezily.

"First of all," said Harry, facing her, "'we' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so—"

"I've got a broom," Ginny pointed out.

"Yeah, but you aren't coming," muttered Ron.

"Excuse me, but I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!"

"You're too—" but before Harry could say that dreaded words that anyone who was young could hear, Ginny said, "I'm three years older than you were when you fought You-Know-Who over the Philosopher's Stone, and it's because of me that Malfoy's stuck back in Umbridge's office with giant flying bogies attacking him."

"We were all in the DA together," said Neville when Harry was going to argue that point. "It was supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real. Or was that just a game or something?"

Harry sputtered, and Corinna added, "Then we should come, too. We want to help."

She met his gaze and she refused to look away no matter how much it seemed to burn.

"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway," said Harry, "because we still don't know how to get there."

"I thought we settled that. We're flying." When Ron pointed out that they still didn't have brooms, Luna rolled her eyes. "We don't need brooms. We can use them." She pointed at nothing, and Corinna tried to look at what was supposedly there.

"Yes," breathed Harry, moving towards where Luna pointed. He easily pet the air and Corinna remembered back to their Care of Magical Creatures class about thestrals—or, as Ron put it—those mad horse things that you can only see if you've watched someone snuff it. "There's only two, though."

"We'll need three," said Hermione.

"Four!" said Ginny.

"I think there are seven of us, actually," said Luna.

"Don't be stupid, we can't all go," said Harry. "Look, you four, you're not involved in this, you're not—"

"We're not what?" Corinna demanded above the other three protests. "You lot think you're some golden trio where you're the only ones who can do anything?"

"Okay, fine," Harry relented when it was obvious that they were just wasting time. "But unless you can find more thestrals you're not going to be able—"

"Oh, more of them will come," said Ginny who looked in a similar direction to Ron and Corinna to try to see the creatures that they won't be able to see. "You and Hermione are both covered in blood and we know Hagrid lures thestrals with raw meat. That's probably why these two turned up in the first place."

There was still some more arguing on who was going to go on ahead with only the two that were there, but then Luna exclaimed that more were coming. While Harry and Neville clambered onto their thestrals, Luna guided the four who could not see them until they were safely settled onto their backs. Although it was securely solid underneath Corinna where she sat on her, the fact that she could not see the thing she was riding made panic rise to her throat. Luna showed them where to lock their knees to be the most secure while riding, but Corinna still couldn't see where to hang on. She just reached forward until she felt what she thought was a mane.

Harry commanded the thestrals where to go and they took flight. She couldn't quite help the scream that escaped from her lips as the thestrals took flight. The darkness from the forest faded as they rose into the air as a blood-red sunset spread out before them. At any other time, Corinna thought it might be beautiful, but as she was clinging to something she could not see for dear life, panic was at the forefront of her mind. She gladly kept her eyes screwed shut and her face buried into the thestral's neck. As much as she would love to see them right now, she did not want to follow through with what that would entail.

Corinna remained like this until she felt them shift downward. She sat up and looked around wildly as they descended over the speckled lights of London. She had once thought of its alleyways and storefronts as her home, but now she wasn't sure where that was anymore.

They landed by the telephone box that Corinna remembered taking numerous times to visit her grandfather at work. It was in the same state of shabby disrepair as it had when Corinna was old enough to form memories. She imagined it had to use the same code as well.

All seven of them managed to squeeze into the telephone box with hardly enough room to breathe let alone to do any sort of movement. Corinna's arm was at an odd angle and it gave an annoyed throb as it was the arm Parkinson had smashed into the wall. She managed to dial the number which, as Harry instructed, was exactly the same. Six, two, four, four, two.

"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic," the same disembodied voice rang out. "Please state your name and business."

"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Corinna Crouch, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood. We're here to save someone, unless your Ministry can do it first!"

"Thank you. Visitors, please take the badges and attach them to the front of your robes."

The badges slid out where change, apparently, would go through the slot. Hermione passed them out and Corinna somehow managed to get hers with the arm that wasn't at an odd angle behind her. Her badge usually said Corinna Crouch, Visiting Family but now it replaced the second half with Rescue Mission. She pinned it next to the spot that her Inquisitorial Squad badge used to occupy. This one she would wear much more proudly.

After the female voice told them that they needed to submit their wands and Harry's impatience in wanting to go down, the ground rose above them as they sunk into the depths of the Ministry of Magic. The light below rose to meet them and the telephone box grinded to a halt in the Atrium. The doors open and they all came tumbling out. They managed to collect themselves, their movements echoing around the empty chamber. Corinna had never seen this place so empty.

"Come on!" said Harry as he led the way passed the security station. Corinna was certain there should always be someone posted there, but it was devoid of personnel. It made the whole room feel even more haunting.

Harry pressed the down button on the nearest lift and the golden grilles slid apart for them to climb on. He stabbed the number nine. The grilles closed and they slowly descended down the many floors of the Ministry. They passed by the floor that used to hold Corinna's grandfather's office. It slid out of view as quickly as it had come.

The lift screeched to a halt on the ninth floor and opened. The same female voice from the telephone box announced, "Department of Mysteries." Cautiously, they stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving. They crept further down the corridor when Harry stopped moving. "Maybe we ought to have a couple stay here and be lookout." After the four newcomers declined such an idea, they kept going, which seemed to annoy Harry. They walked until they reached a door. It easily swung open and all seven of them stepped inside.


	7. In Which Corinna has the Worst Family Reunion

They were inside a circular room where everything was black from the floor to the ceiling, from the walls to the identical, handless doors. As soon as the door was shut behind them, the circular wall began to move and spun so fast that Corinna could not keep up. It eventually slowed and it was impossible to tell which door that had come in from. It was to purposefully discombobulate anyone who came in who weren't allowed to be there.

"How are we supposed to get back out?" asked Neville, sounding afraid.

"Well, that doesn't matter now," said Harry, "we won't need to get out until we've found Sirius."

"Don't go calling for him, though!" said Hermione.

"Where do we go then, Harry?" asked Ron.

"In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room—that's this one—and then I went through another door into a room that kind of glitters. We should try a few doors. I'll know the right way when I see it. Come on!"

Harry went straight and placed a hand on the door. Everyone had their wands trained forward as he effortlessly pushed the door open. The long room was flooded with golden light. It almost looked like a classroom set up, but set in the center was a large tank full of deep green liquid. Corinna tried to see what was floating within the liquid, and Hermione confirmed her suspicion after much debate between the others. "They're brains."

"Let's get out of here," said Harry, matching Corinna's sentiments exactly. "This isn't right, we need to try another door."

"There are doors here, too," said Ron. Sure enough, around the room were numerous other doors. Corinna wondered how anyone was supposed to navigate such a place, and how big it could even be.

"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one," Harry explained. "I think we should go back and try from there."

They all hurried back into the main room, and it seemed everyone was glad to be away from the swimming brains. As the door was about to close, Hermione quickly drew her wand and said, "Flagrate," and a red 'X' appeared on the door. As soon as it was clicked close, the doors spun again to confuse them as to where they just were. But, as the doors stopped spinning, the mark remained. At the very least, they had a way to know where not to go.

"Good thinking," said Harry. "Okay, let's try this one."

He went with the one directly in front of them, which was just as good of a choice as any. He only knew what the room he was looking for looked like, not where it was located amount the confusing doors.

This room was larger than the last with raised seating like one would see in the courtrooms just before the Department of Mysteries. But, in the very center, was an unsupported archway, obscured only by a thin black veil. It fluttered lazily as if there was a draft, but the air was much too still for Corinna's liking.

"Who's there?" said Harry as he stepped down to step closer to the pit. Despite Hermione's warning to be careful, he continued down until he was in the pit itself. He looked up at the archway and Corinna cautiously made to follow him.

"Harry," Corinna hissed, stopping when he seemed to approach the veil. A couple of the others called to him to come back, but they were rooted in place. "Harry," she called again, "let's go, okay?" He acknowledged the others, but he was made no effort to move away from the archway.

"What are you saying?" he asked, his raise voice causing an echo around the near-empty chamber.

Corinna continued down the steps, nearly tripping over her robes as she did so. "Nobody's talking, Harry!"

Others were cautiously moving about the room, as if preparing to drag Harry out if necessary. Corinna at least felt that way.

"Someone's whispering behind there," he said, moving away from Corinna and she stubbornly moved closer still. "Is that you, Ron?"

"I'm here, mate," said Ron from the other side of the archway.

"Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry demanded and he automatically placed his foot on the dais that held the infuriating archway. Corinna had her wand trained on Harry in case she needed to retaliate.

"I can hear them, too," breathed Luna as she gazed at the archway with interest. "There are people in there?"

"What do you mean, 'in there?'" demanded Hermione. "There isn't any 'in there,' it's just an archway. There's no room for anybody to be there."

"Harry, come on," said Corinna as she grabbed his arm. She felt him resist as she tried to pull him down from the dais.

"Harry, we are supposed to be here for Sirius!" shrieked Hermione, her tone matching exactly how Corinna felt at that moment.

"Sirius," said Harry as if in a trance as he continued to watch the veiled archway. "Yeah…"

Corinna could feel something shift within Harry. His eyes widened as the reality of the situation settled around them. He glanced back at Corinna and she was annoyed with herself as this was not the time for her body to react in the way that it did. He looked lost, and she just wanted to pull him into an embrace to guard him from the situation. Instead, she just pulled him away from the dais and he gladly followed after her.

"Let's go," said Harry, as if he was the one who had come up with that idea himself.

"That's what we've been trying to—well, come on, then!" said Hermione. Corinna kept an arm on Harry as Hermione led the way around the dais. Ginny and Neville were also staring at the veil and were needed to be dragged away in a similar way as Harry.

"What do you reckon that arch was?" asked Harry once they were all safely in the circular room.

"I don't know," said Hermione, and she marked the door like she did with the previous one. "Whatever it was, it was dangerous."

The wall spun again. Harry approached one at random again. Instead of walking right through like the previous ones, this one didn't seem to budge. "It's locked!" said Harry as he threw his weight onto the door, but it continued to be stubborn.

Hermione motioned for the others to back away. She attempted an Alohomora as if it were an ordinary door, but nothing seemed to happen. Harry brought out the knife he used to unlock Umbridge's door the two times they had broken in there. He placed the knife in the seal where a knob would normally be. He tried to shove the door open, but it remained still. He looked down at the knife. The blade used to unlock any door had melted into nothing.

"Right," said Hermione, "we're leaving that room." When Ron raised objection, she continued. "It can't be. Harry could get through all the doors in his dream." She marked the door and they all stepped back.

The room spun again, and now Corinna could start to see a dotted streak of red along with the bright blue streak. Once it stopped, Harry chose another door, and it was almost a relief when this one opened. Especially when it opened into a glittering room. With an exclamation from Harry that this was it, they followed after him into the wonderous room of time. He led them down a narrow passage between the tower of glittering objects and a line of desks. He stopped in front a large crystal bell jar that glowed brilliantly. Ginny pointed to the jar as a bejeweled egg rose inside the jar and then transformed into a flittering bird. It fell back and forth, changing form depending on where in the jar it was.

Harry motioned for the others to continue, to some protest from those who were interested in what was going on with the jar. With his announcement that this was it, everyone turned very serious and drew out their wands. Corinna's arm gave a slight twinge in anticipation. Or it could be Parkinson injured it in some way.

Harry led them through the door behind the bell jar to reveal a room with high ceilings and rows and rows of nothing but glass orbs. A shiver ran through Corinna as the cautiously continued into the room, looking out for any sign of trouble. It was cold and quiet in the large room.

"You said it was row ninety-seven," whispered Hermione. Corinna could understand trying to be as quiet as possible. It was like walking into a church or a room with a dying person inside. The very air inside the room demanded reverence.

They were standing by row fifty-three. They looked to the right where there was row fifty-four. Sticking together as closely as the seven of them could while still walking forward, they made their way down the innumerable number of rows. As the row number increased, so had the anticipation that was palpable among the group. They kept their ears trained for any sound, but Corinna was convinced they would be able to hear a pin drop from row twenty-five and they were now in the eighties.

"Ninety-seven," whispered Hermione. They peered down the long row, but there wasn't anyone there. Harry insisted that it was right down at the end, and led the group down between the towering shelves of glass balls. Corinna got an uneasy feeling as they continued down. This didn't seem right. "Harry," said Hermione when Harry seemed to look around wildly. "I don't think Sirius is here."

In the dull light emanating from the glass orbs, Harry looked impossibly pale. There was no sign of Sirius anywhere, or even anything to indicate that there was a struggle in the first place. They were all pulled back into reality by Ron, who was calling out for his best mate. "Have you seen this? It's got your name on it." He was staring at one of the dusty shelves and Harry rushed over. Corinna craned her neck to see what Ron was talking about. One of the dusty orbs included a yellowed label that Corinna strained to read:

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D.

Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter

His hands were already outstretched towards the glass orb, and the others around him tried to warn him off touching it. Ignoring the others, he grabbed the orb and stared at it. Corinna was hoping something would happen, but nothing seemed to be happening. Harry just stared at the orb, confused.

"Very good, Potter," a bored voice drawled behind them. "Now turn around, nice and slow, and give that to me."

Dark shapes emerged out of thin air, block their exit. They all wore hoods and had their wands trained at the group of teenagers. The same voice demanded that Harry pass over the orb to him, and Harry remained still, his own wand trained to the cloaked figures. "Where's Sirius?"

Many of the cloaked figures laughed, but none higher than a cold, harsh, female one. "The Dark Lord always knows!" she jeered, causing Corinna's stomach to curdle like milk that was left out on the counter without a cooling charm.

"I want to know where Sirius is!" demanded Harry, sounding unsure of himself.

"I want to know where Sirius is!" the woman mimicked. "The little baby woke up frightened and thought what it dreamt was true!"

"Don't do anything," Harry muttered when Ron trained his wand on the woman who was mocking Harry.

The woman laughed again. "You hear him? You hear him? Giving instructions to the other children as though he thinks of fighting us!"

"Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix…" Corinna did not hear what the man had said after that. She stared at the hooded woman in complete horror. Putrid bile rose to her throat and she saw her wand shaking in her grasp.

She had never imagined a pleasant scenario where she met her mother, but standing in the middle of the Department of Mysteries with her classmates while the boy she had a crush on clutched an orb that had his and You-Know-Who's names on it hadn't even crossed into the realm of possibility.

Before Corinna realized what was happening, a wand came into view and pointed right at her chest. She did not know who was behind the hood, but it mattered not. She was ready to take on whoever it was. Part of her wondered why they hadn't attacked yet. As Bellatrix mentioned, they thought they were a bunch of children, easily taken down.

"Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt," said the same man as earlier.

"Yeah, right," Harry said with a slight laugh. "I give you this—prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"

Bellatrix tried to summon the prophecy from Harry, but he threw up a protection spell before she could finish saying the incantation. "Oh, he knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter! Very well, then—"

"I told you no!" the man bellowed at Bellatrix. "If you smash it!"

Much to her horror, Bellatrix stepped forward and removed her hood. Corinna stared in horror as her mother's gaunt face came into view. She looked even worse than in her photograph on the front of the Daily Prophet, but her eyes were alight with madness.

"You need more persuasion?" she said, breathing heavily. "Very well—take the smallest one," she ordered the Death Eaters beside her. "Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it!"

Much to Corinna's horror, the Death Eaters moved closer to her. Of course they would assume she was the youngest since she hadn't grown since she first went to Hogwarts. Harry stepped in front of her with the prophecy clutched to his chest. "You'll have to smash this if you want to attack any of us," he told Bellatrix. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he?"

Corinna shifted so she could see past Harry's shoulders. Bellatrix remained unmoving as she licked her thin lips. Her lips so much like her own.

"So," said Harry conversationally, as if they all weren't in mortal danger, "what kind of prophecy are we talking about, anyway?"

He was trying to buy them time to come up with a plan. Corinna didn't think her sharp tongue was going to get them out of something like this. They weren't the type that could be tricked with a simple lie or a tall tale.

"What kind of prophecy?" Bellatrix's smile fell as she studied Harry. "You jest, Harry Potter."

"Nope, not jesting," said Harry. "How come Voldemort wants it?"

The Death Eaters around them hissed when Harry said You-Know-Who's name, something that Corinna was oddly used to hearing from him at this point. Not that she would ever say his name…

"You dare speak his name?" whispered Bellatrix. Her eyes seemed to glow with anger.

"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah, I've got no problem saying Vol—"

"Shut your mouth!" Bellatrix shrieked, something Corinna might have thought was funny if the circumstances were different. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your half-blood's tongue, you dare—"

"Did you know he's a half-blood too?" said Harry, and Hermione groaned. "Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch but his dad was a Muggle. Or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?"

Bellatrix went to stun Harry for his cheek, but the man deflected the spell and sent it crashing into a shelf. Orbs shattered and pearly ghosts shot up from the massacre of glass, talking over each other so what they said was indistinct from one another.

"Do not attack! We need the prophecy!"

Bellatrix shrieked indignantly. "He dared—he dares—he stands there—filthy half-blood—"

"Wait until we have the prophecy!"

The figures disappeared into thin air, but Corinna scantly paid attention to them. Her eyes were transfixed on Bellatrix, trying to come to terms with the fact that this crazed woman was her mother. It was much easier to ignore it when all she was to Corinna were ancient articles and accompanying photographs.

"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," said Harry. Corinna felt his foot shift and nudge against hers. She dared not look down and instead shifted her weight to move her mouth closer to Harry's ear. "What?" she asked in a barely audible whisper.

"Dumbledore never told you the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?"

"I—what?" said Harry. "What about my scar?"

"What?" Corinna whispered more urgently.

"Can this be?" the man said, sounding delighted. Other joined in with laughter. While they were momentarily distracted, Harry shifted his head slightly and whispered to Corinna, "Smash shelves—"

"Dumbledore never told you? Well, this explains why you didn't come earlier, Potter, the Dark Lord wondered why—"

"—when I say now—"

"—you didn't come running when he showed you the place where it was hidden in your dreams. He thought natural curiosity would make you want to hear the exact wording…"

"Did he?" said Harry and Corinna passed along Harry's message in a low whisper to those nearest to her. Hermione got the rest of the group that Corinna wasn't near. "So, he wanted me to come and get it, did he? Why?"

"Why? Because the only people who are permitted to retrieve a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries, Potter, are those about whom it was made, as the Dark Lord discovered when he attempted to use others to steal it for him."

"And why did he want to steal a prophecy about me?"

"About both of you, Potter, about both of you…haven't you ever wondered why the Dark Lord tried to kill you as a baby?"

"Someone made a prophecy about Voldemort and me? And he's made me come and get it for him? Why couldn't he come and get it himself?"

"Get it himself?" shrieked Bellatrix, cackling madly. "The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?"

"So, he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he? Like he tried to get Sturgis and Bode to steal it?"

"Very good, Potter, very good." The man sounded much like someone who was congratulating someone who was capable of tying their own shoes doing as such. "But the Dark Lord knows you are not unintell—"

"Now!"

Six distinct voices shouted "Reducto!" and the six curses flew in different directions, but all aimed for the shelves. Glass shattered around them and the indistinct ghosts rose around them, causing a loud drone to fill the hall. Harry told them all to run as the shelves started to sway uneasily above them and they all put their arms up to protect their heads as they made a run for it, straight ahead. Corinna saw Ron, Ginny, and Luna rush ahead of the others while Harry dragged Hermione and Corinna led Neville to follow them.

Once they were at the end of the row, they all started sprinting quickly as they didn't have to protect themselves from falling glass. The door they had come from was just head, glowing slightly from the large bell jar. Harry made sure that the others got through the door, with Corinna being the last, before slamming it shut behind him.

"Colloportus!" Hermione shrieked at the door to seal it shut.

"Where are the others?" gasped Harry.

Corinna looked around. Ron, Luna, and Ginny were nowhere to be found. They remained silent as they listened to someone bark orders at the various Death Eaters. Corinna winced when she heard him say Bellatrix and Rodolphus, her husband. For a split second, she wondered if he knew that his wife was unfaithful.

"What do we do?" asked Hermione when the voices faded into the distance.

They started with getting away from the door so they weren't sitting ducks waiting for the Death Eaters to find them. They went back through the time room and froze when there was loud slamming against the door.

"Stand aside! Alohomora!"

As the door flew open, the four of them dove under desks. The only thing they could see was the bottom of the Death Eater's robes coming closer.

"They might've run straight through to the hall."

"Check under the desks."

Corinna had scrambled out of the desk to see Harry hit one of the Death Eaters with a stunner, and the other was going for Hermione as she did the same as Corinna to get a better vantage point. Before the Death Eater could begin to say the killing curse, Harry shot his wand out and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Their wands went flying close to wear Corinna was still hunched over. She dove for the wands at the same time as the Death Eater and Harry. Neville, however, demanded Harry move out of the way so he could stun the Death Eater. The curse went high over the Death Eater's shoulder and hit the cabinet behind them. Corinna threw her arms up to protect her face from the shattered glass from the doors and whatever was inside the cabinet. She felt shards of glass scratch her arms as the sleeves of her robes had rode up, but they did not compare to landing on the glass shards and the pain shooting through her upper arm and shoulder throbbed as they embedded themselves into her skin.

The Death Eater had managed to get his wand and, despite the pain in her wand arm, she leveled her wand at him and shouted "Stupefy!" at the same time as Hermione. Their curse sent the Death Eater into the crystal bell jar. His head slid effortlessly into the glass as if it wasn't there. Hermione called Harry's wand and handed it to him as Neville helped Corinna stand from where she was sprawled out. They all looked down at horror at what remained of the man's head. It had shrunk down and started bawling as only an infant could. It then grew back to be that of an adult mans. And then back to an infant.

"It's time," said Hermine in awe.

There was a shout from a room nearby. A crash. A scream.

They ran towards the sounds, Harry bellowing out the names of their lost companions. They managed to get about halfway there when the door opened to reveal two more Death Eaters running across the black room. Harry guided them to another door, and Corinna couldn't help but wince when he touched her injured shoulder, the glass digging further in. Black spots danced in Corinna's vision that she could barely register that they had entered a cluttered office area. Before Hermione could lock the door, it burst open and the Death Eaters came barreling inside, and both called out, "Impedimenta!"

Harry, Hermione, Corinna, and Neville were all knocked backwards off their feet. Corinna didn't see where the others had landed, but she was thrown into the back wall, landing right on her injured side. It's like the universe knew how to make things worse.

"We've got him!" one of the Death Eaters shouted into the black room. "In an office off—"

"Silencio!" said Hermione and the man immediately lost his voice.

"Petrificus Totalus," said Harry just as the second Death Eater raised his arm. His limbs snapped together and he felt onto the ground with a loud thud.

Before Hermione could congratulate Harry, she was struck with a spell from the silenced Death Eater. Her face fell as the purple spell slashed through her chest. In the next instant, she crumpled to the ground and laid motionless.

Harry cried out as he knelt down next to Hermione's body. Neville crawled from where he was discarded behind the desks. The silenced Death Eater had kicked out at Neville, his foot connecting with his nose and causing his wand to break in the process. Sometime in the scuffle, the Death Eater's hood had fallen off and Corinna vaguely remembered his picture from the same article that included Bellatrix, not that she had paid much attention to anyone else on the front page.

Although he could not speak, his expression and actions spoke volumes. "Like you won't kill us all anyway, the moment I hand it over!"

At Neville's strained declaration for Harry to never give over the prophecy, Corinna saw that his nose was clearly broken with blood was pouring from his nose and covering the front of his robes. She knelt down in front of him and uttered, "Episkey." The nose snapped into place with a loud groan from Neville. He tried to wipe away the last of the blood from his nostrils.

"Thanks, Corinna."

"Don't mention it," she said as the baby-headed Death Eater came back. Harry used the full body-bind curse on him and he fell with another thud next to his fallen comrades. They scurried over to where Harry was kneeling over Hermione. She tried not to think about how she looked dead.

"What did he do to her?" asked Neville, sounding normal now that his nose wasn't broken.

Both Harry and Corinna looked at a loss, but Corinna reached over to feel against Hermione's neck, looking for the artery. "I feel a pulse." She glanced up at Harry and Neville, who both looked concerned. "I'm sure of it."

"We're not far from the exit," whispered Harry after a few beats of silence, "we're right next to the circular room. Neville, if we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift. And then you can find someone, raise the alarm."

"I don't think we should split up," said Neville, "especially since I don't have a wand and who knows if I'll be able to use Hermione's to do any real damage."

"Then Corinna can go with you," said Harry.

"And leave you and your self-sacrificing arse?" Corinna countered. "Not a chance, Harry."

"But, Hermione—"

"We'll take her with us," said Neville firmly. "I'll carry her—you two are better at fighting them than I am."

He stood up and seized one of Hermione's arms. Harry sighed and stood up to help Neville get her over his shoulders. As Corinna stood, she grabbed Hermione's wand and handed it to Neville. "Just in case," she said. "Better than nothing."

Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand and they made their way to the door.

"My gran's going to kill me," said Neville thickly, "that was my dad's old wand."

Corinna tried to ignore the guilt swelling up inside her as Harry looked through the threshold. The baby-headed Death Eater was making a ruckus but, as he probably wouldn't notice them, they crept back into the deserted black hallway. The doors slammed shut and the room began to spin again. As it slowed, they noted that the crosses had faded from the doors. They had no way to know which doors they have already entered.

But before they could make a decision on where to go next, a door burst open and three people came tumbling out. Harry and Corinna made a break for them and Neville remained as he couldn't move as quickly carrying Hermione.

"Harry," said Ron around a giggle. "There you are! Ha-ha-ha. You look funny, Harry!" Something dark trickled from his mouth and his knees gave way and Harry bent to try to support him.

"Ginny?" said Corinna, rushing over to her. "What happened?"

Ginny didn't say anything as she clutched her ankle, face white from the pain.

"I think her ankle's broken," whispered Luna who seemed unhurt. "I heard something crack." Corinna didn't think she could help. She had done broken noses before as those seemed to be commonplace among teenagers. But if she did something wrong with a broken leg, Ginny might be worse off. "Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets; it was a very odd place. Some of the time, we were just floating in the dark." After being interrupted by Ron's crude joke about seeing Uranus, Luna continued. "One of them grabbed Ginny's foot. I used the Reductor Curse and blew up Pluto in his face, but…" She motioned to Ginny who was now whimpering.

"And what about Ron?" said Harry.

"I don't know what they hit him with, but he's gone a bit funny. I could hardly get him along at all."

"We've got to get out of here," said Harry firmly. "Luna, can you help Ginny?"

After much protesting from Ginny that she could do it herself, only to be proven otherwise that she needed her friends support, they were ready to try any of the doors. With a one in twelve chance, their odds were slim about getting the exit on the first try. Harry motioned towards one of the doors and Corinna, as she did not have anyone to support besides clutching her injured arm, lead the way through one of the doors. To the right of them, another door slammed open and her heart seemed to stop when she saw who crossed over the threshold. Three Death Eaters stalked into the corridor led by Bellatrix Lestrange.

"There they are!" she shrieked.

Stunning spells shot across the room. "Protego!" Corinna shouted to deflect those that were coming towards them. Harry unceremoniously shoved Ron into the room. Corinna went to help Neville with Hermione so that he could move faster, and Harry urged Luna and Ginny into the room. Once they managed to slam the door shut, Harry shouted, "Colloportus!"

Unfortunately, they were in the brain room with the numerous doors surrounding the room. "Corinna, Luna, Neville, help me!" The four of them ran around the room, going to various doors and yelling, "Colloportus," to lock the doors to prevent the Death Eaters from coming in. They had split into two groups with Neville and Luna taking one side and Harry and Corinna taking the other. Just as Harry and Corinna were about to meet in the middle, they heard Luna cry out.

Five Death Eaters were surging into the room, using the door that Luna hadn't locked in time. She slammed into one of the desk and sprawled onto the ground unceremonious, going as still as Hermione.

"Get Potter!" shrieked Bellatrix who immediately went for Harry. Corinna wasn't concerned as they wouldn't dare hurt him while they thought they might hit the prophecy. She went for a couple of the others shouting, "Stupefy!" She hit one of the Death Eaters and they went sprawling to the ground. Corinna could hear Neville shouting his own stunning spells, but they didn't seem to want to work with Hermione's wand.

But everything seemed to freeze when she heard Ron shout, "Accio brain!" Everyone who was still conscious turned to look as a brain flew out of the green liquid and latched itself onto Ron. The tentacles unfurled and wrapped themselves around Ron, which he seemed amused by at first, but then his face fell and he stated that he did not like this.

Everything seemed to erupt into chaos as Corinna blocked a couple of stunners from hitting Ginny. She didn't react in time for one of them, missing her be mere inches, but hitting Ginny right in the face and knocking her out.

Corinna looked up as she saw Harry holding up the prophecy for the Death Eaters to see, and she understood what he was trying to do. He was drawing the Death Eaters away from the others, with Bellatrix leading the way with a hungry expression on her face. They dared not curse Harry out of fear of smashing the prophecy.

Hoping Neville could handle Ron and the brain, Corinna rushed to the door that Harry was barreling towards. She threw off a few stunners into the group to slow them down. Bellatrix leveled her wand at Corinna and saw a streak of green erupt. It only missed her because Harry had grabbed her arm and pulled her into the other room with him.

The floor fell from beneath them and they found themselves tumbling and bouncing down numerous tiers. It made her left arm explode with more pain that now joined the others as the two of them became a tangle of limbs. They landed in the pit below, Harry sprawled out on his back. Corinna landed on top of him but skidded to a halt onto her side. The universe finally threw her a bone since it was on her uninjured side.

They were in the large room with the veiled archway and Death Eater laughter echoed off the stone walls, surrounding them in a heavy blanket. The barely managed to scramble up and catch their breath as the five Death Eaters, some of which must have been revived by their comrades, descended the steps that Harry and Corinna had tumbled down. Others were also pouring around the room, completely encompassing the two of them. They tried to back up, but they hit the dais that held the archway. As much as Corinna did not want to get anywhere near the archway, they didn't have much of a choice.

"Potter, your race is run," drawled Lucius Malfoy, who had lost his hood somewhere along the way. She recognized his voice as the one that took charge when Harry first grabbed the prophecy. "Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy."

Corinna kept her wand trained on Malfoy. "Let the others go," said Harry, "and I'll give it to you."

"No, Harry!"

"You are not in a position to bargain, Potter," said Malfoy. "You see, there are ten of us and only two of you. Or hasn't Dumbledore ever taught you how to count?"

"They still got me!" Neville shouted from the Brain Room. He tried to throw out stunning spells, but Hermione's wand still didn't want to obey his commands. Harry begged him to go back to Ron, but Neville ignored him. One of the larger Death Eaters seized Neville and had his arms pinned to his sides.

"It's Longbottom, isn't it," sneered Malfoy. "Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause. Your death will not come as a great shock."

"Longbottom?" repeated Bellatrix. "Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy."

"I know you have!" Neville said, struggling against where he was pinned.

When someone suggested stunning him, Bellatrix turned them down. "Let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks just like his parents, unless—"

Corinna didn't even hear what she said after that as blind panic settled in. "Oh, no you don't, you bitch!" she shouted. "Stupefy!"

Malfoy blocked the stunner and Bellatrix turned away from Neville and looked sharply at Corinna, a mad smile on her face. "I may not have been the one to raise you, but I know you have better manners than to call your own mother that!"

Corinna's blood ran cold as she stared up at Bellatrix Lestrange as if for the first time. She did not dare look at Neville, not wanting to even think about what he thought of her at that moment. "Now, convince your little boyfriend there to give us the prophecy," said Bellatrix when Corinna remained unmoving. "Unless you want me to torture Longbottom here."

"Don't give it to them!" roared Neville as he fought harder to get away. "Don't give it to them, Harry!"

Bellatrix raised her wand. "Crucio!" Corinna winced as Neville's screams of pain echoed around the chamber. He writhed in pain, only remaining upright because of the Death Eater holding him up. "That was just a taster." She stopped so that Neville stopped screaming and was left only sobbing. She turned her gaze back to Harry and Corinna. "Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!"

Corinna knew that they didn't have much of a choice. Despite Neville's bravery to protect the prophecy, there was no way they could let him have the same fate as his parents. She tore her gaze away from Bellatrix and looked over at Harry, who seemed to be thinking the same way she was. But, before he could say or do anything, two more doors burst open above them. Five people came rushing into the room and Corinna had never felt so relieved in her life. There was Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Dora, and Kingsley.

Chaos erupted around them as the Death Eaters turned to start fighting the various members of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry and Corinna hopped down from the dais as they dodged and weaved around various spells. A flash of light came barreling towards them and they were forced to dodge in two different directions. As Harry was closer to Neville, he made his way over to him. Corinna stood up and yelled "Protego!" when a spell came her way.

"Wotcher, Corinna!" said Dora and she dodged a spell shot at her from Bellatrix. "Get out of here!"

But Corinna had no intention of leaving. She wanted to make Bellatrix pay. "Flipendo!" she shouted to knock her back into the tier above, which opened Dora up to take her own shot.

"This isn't up for debate!" shouted Dora, looking annoyed at Corinna. Her usual carefree attitude was gone. She was all Auror right now, even if her hair was still a brilliant purple. "Get to Harry and Neville and get out of here!"

Bellatrix recovered and shot a stunner right at Corinna. After yelling the protection spell, she looked around for a safe place to run to. With the fighting erupting around them, there was no way for Corinna to turn. She could just hope that Harry and Neville were safe as she shouted more spells. Dora was right next to her, obviously noting Corinna's predicament. But, before Corinna could do anything about it, a jet of red light hit Dora in the middle of the chest, and she went tumbling down. She laid on the bottom of the pit, unmoving.

Bellatrix cackled loudly and shot another stunner toward Corinna, who jumped down to the seat below and ducked.

"You yell at me for calling you names, and yet you are trying to kill me!" shouted Corinna as panic started to set into her chest. What was she even doing? She knew what her mother was capable of.

Corinna was the reason why Dora was knocked out and possibly dead!

She expected another cackle to come from Bellatrix, but she only heard her shouting more spells. Corinna tentatively looked over to see Sirius now fighting his cousin. She swore he looked like he was having the time of his life. They moved their way down towards the pit, leaving Corinna in the dust. She shakily stood up from her hiding place to come face to face with another of the Death Eaters. She couldn't even begin to put a name to a face when she started shouting the protection spell whenever he shot something at her.

She back away in the opposite direction and turned once she got to the top tier, and ran for one of the doors that would hopefully lead her to the others so she could get them help. When she tried the door, it wouldn't budge. She swallowed thickly as she turned back to the Death Eater that was coming for her. With only one last hope, she trained her wand at the Death Eater and shouted "Bombarda!" at the same time he shouted, "Stupefy!"

The explosion seemed to erupt around Corinna, throwing her back. She didn't know how far up in the air she was thrown, but she was acutely aware of landing flat on her back as stars popped and sparkled in her vision. She could no longer hear the battle around her, only the ringing in her ear that seemed to echo in her head. With a shaky hand, she reached over to her ear to see if she could get the ringing to stop, but all she felt was something wet. She looked at her fingers and distinctly saw blood. Nausea overcame her and she lowered her hand as she could not find the strength to keep it aloft.

She did not know how long much time had passed. She didn't know if she passed out or not. She wasn't even aware of what was going on with her own body.

Eventually, she saw a figure standing over her. She blinked lazily to try to see the figure, but it continued to be a blur to her. A male voice said something, but it sounded like he was underwater, his words indistinct. Another figure joined him, and Corinna could only make out a golden sparkle on the newcomer's face. There were some movements and an object was placed in her hand. She could barely call up the strength to hold on just in time for her body to give a familiar jolt. The chamber faded from her vision and she found herself elsewhere.


	8. In Which You-Know-Who Officially Rises

That elsewhere turned out the be the hospital wing back at Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey had numerous curtains up around beds that Corinna knew to be the others who had followed Harry into the Department of Mysteries. She only counted five curtains. Someone was missing and Corinna gave a jolt of fear.

Pomfrey managed to magic the glass out of Corinna's arm and heal the various scratches until they were nearly faint lines that should fade in a few days. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do about Corinna's ruptured ear drum besides tape some sterile cotton to it to protect it and trap any liquids from getting everywhere. Any sort of magic near such a sensitive area could do more harm than good, according to Pomfrey, who had to talk to her on the left side so she could actually hear what was being said. The ruptured ear drum should heal on it's own, but it will be a painful few weeks of hearing loss and other unfortunate side effects such as a high-pitched ringing, nausea, and vertigo.

Since there wasn't much else that could be done, Pomfrey gave her a potion for the pain and sent her back to her dormitory to rest, telling her to come back if the pain becomes unbearable or if she passes out.

Before she left, she asked who was missing. Harry wasn't sent to the Hospital Wing like the others. She asked about Dora, but Pomfrey heard that she was sent to St. Mungo's as her injuries were too serious. Pomfrey hesitated a moment before telling her that Sirius Black was the only one killed on their side.

Corinna was surprised by her own lack of reaction to the news. Maybe she was just that exhausted and the reality of the situation wasn't able to settle in her addled brain.

Later on, she would learn that You-Know-Who had appeared at the Department of Mysteries and fought Dumbledore, who was figure standing above her and had magicked her back to Hogwarts. You-Know-Who had gotten away, but not before being spotted by the Minister of Magic and quite a few Aurors.

She also learned the identity of the man she had hit with the exploding charm: Rodulphus Lestrange. He was still alive and being treated for his injuries before getting carted off to Azkaban with Lucius Malfoy and a few other Death Eaters that were captured.

With a promise that she would go rest, she left the hospital wing just as the sun started to rise outside. She could not believe that they were gone all night. It didn't seem like it was that long. At least the early hour meant that she didn't run into anyone as she made her way to Gryffindor Tower, trudged up to her dormitory, and collapsed onto her bed.

She didn't think she had slept for that long, but when she opened her eyes again, it was the middle of the afternoon. There was a note beside her pillow, in Parvati's neat scrawl. It said that Terry was looking for her and to meet him in the library when she woke up.

The last thing Corinna wanted to do was go to the library when she felt like she was going to puke on top of feeling grungy. Ignoring the ringing in her head, she sat up and attempted to rub sleep from her eyes. It took her forever to change into some fresh clothes as it felt like her limbs were filled with cement.

As most people were either finishing up their exams or were taking advantage of freedom from revision outside, Corinna was thankful she did not run into many people. When she did, she glared at them and they smartly kept their distance. She could only imagine how bad she looked if she actually managed to scare people off.

Terry was the only one in the library when Corinna managed to get there. He looked like he had been sitting there awhile, camped out with a novel in his hands. In fact, he was so absorbed in the material, he didn't look up until Corinna was pretty much on top of him.

"You look like hell," he winced as he shifted so Corinna could sit down on the bench.

"I just got back."

Terry seemed at a loss as to what to say, and Corinna was not about to start the conversation. She folded her arms onto the table and placed her head down. She couldn't believe that she felt like she was going to pass out from walking from her dorm to the library. He must have decided to not ask her questions, as he opted to rub her back to help her feel better.

Once the nausea passed, she lifted her head back up and Terry seemed to study her closely, as if he was afraid she was going to disappear. His eyes lingered on the bandage against Corinna's ear and she turned away to hide it from view. He hesitated a moment before pulling something out of his bag and setting it down in front of Corinna. "Happy birthday?"

Corinna stared down at the package and swore loudly, causing Madam Pince to appear from somewhere in the stacks to tell them off. Once she was gone, after threatening that one more interruption from them would get them kicked out, she looked over at Terry. "Why does horrible shite always happen on my birthday?"

"I don't know," he said softly. Knowing she was going to have to do it eventually, she took the present and carefully unwrapped it. "You mentioned how you needed a new bag as your current one was falling apart. I hope you like it. It's purple, your favorite color. And now you should tell me to shut up so I would quit babbling."

Corinna shook her head and leaned over to grab Terry in a hug. "I love it," she said into his shoulder. "Thank you, Terry." She lifted her head and sniffled loudly.

"Hey, come on, when are you one to cry over a stupid present?" said Terry, trying to keep his tone light.

"I'm not," said Corinna as she looked over the bag. "Truth is, I don't even know what I feel right now."

"I mean, if the rumors are any indication, you lot had one messed up night," said Terry. "You're probably physically and mentally exhausted."

"Not to mention deaf in one ear," said Corinna flatly. Knowing that the Hogwarts rumor mill would eventually know everything that happened, she decided to tell Terry what happened starting with Harry having a fit during their History of Magic examination to what Corinna had found out in the hospital wing.

Terry, for his part, did not ask any questions while Corinna recounted the tale, but he did take delight in Corinna spitting in Umbridge's face and her well-deserved comeuppance in the Forbidden Forest. He seemed to have stopped breathing when Corinna mentioned Bellatrix. That was the hardest to talk about, even with Terry.

"So, she knew about you that whole time and still tried to use the killing curse on you?"

"Yep," said Corinna, ending the word with a sharp pop.

"That bitch!"

That was the final straw as Madam Pince kicked them out of the library after that. Since Corinna did not have the strength to walk around, they sat down on one of the stone benches. She kept the backpack on her lap.

"I actually called her that," she admitted after a moment. "And then she had the audacity to tell me off for it. As if we have had any sort of relationship for the last thirteen years."

"Fourteen," Terry corrected. "You're sixteen now, remember?"

Corinna leveled a glare at him.

"But you know what else this means?" asked Terry. When Corinna didn't answer, he said, "She cared more about keeping Harry Potter alive because of the prophecy he was holding than she cared about you."

"As if I needed another excuse to hate that woman," said Corinna, seething at this point.

"Do you even know what the prophecy is about?"

"No idea. All that, and I don't even know what it is. All I really understood was, if the Death Eaters wanted it, we were doing what we could to prevent that from happening."

Surprisingly, telling Terry about the events of that night helped her feel a bit better. Plus, it made him feel bad about what Corinna went through, so he promised to nick some food during dinner to bring to her so she didn't have to sit in the Great Hall with people asking her a million and one questions about their little Ministry escapade.

She went to bed early that night and slept through the whole night. Corinna couldn't remember the last time something like that happened. Everything still hurt, especially her ear, but at least she wasn't completely exhausted.

She went down to the hospital wing that afternoon to visit Ron and Hermione, who were still in the Hospital under the watchful eye of Madam Pomfrey. Hermione was sitting there, reading the special edition of the Daily Prophet about You-Know-Who returning and how Harry was now the Boy Who Lived again instead of a nutter. She could only hear about half of what they were saying, and she was tired of having to ask people to repeat themselves, so she just let herself get lulled by the mindless chatter.

Everyone was there that went to the Ministry that night. Corinna kept glancing at Neville, but he seemed to pointedly look away from Corinna. Aunt Andromeda's words came to mind and she left him be.

At least, she was okay with it until Harry announced he was going to go see Hagrid. Hermione's brows furrowed but he had rushed out without saying much else. He had seemed especially lost since they got back from the Ministry. Corinna wanted to chalk it up to him missing Sirius, but she wasn't so sure it was just that. Giving the excuse that she promised Terry they would meet up, she followed Harry down the grounds. As her body was still recovering, she felt winded by the time she stepped outside. She walked down the lawn towards Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forest when she saw Harry leave. He hadn't stayed long. His hands were shoved in his pocket and he looked lost.

She hung by the Entrance Hall to see where he would go when she saw him sit down on the edge of the lake, away from everyone else. She remained still a moment to see if he would do something else, but he had his knees drawn to his chest as he stared out at the lake.

With a soft sigh, she made her way to where he sat. He didn't look up when she sat down next to him, making sure to sit on the correct side so she could hear him if he wanted to talk. But, he seemed keen on just staring out into the lake. She remained silent, letting him talk if he wanted to.

They stayed like that until the sun set and a chill settled around them, and they made their way back to the castle.

The rest of the term seemed to blur together of attempting to do things with Terry and his friends, or trying to do things with the others that were growing to be friends. She was honestly quite relieved when Neville went up to her and said that he didn't care that her mother was Bellatrix. The fact that she was willing to stun her to prevent her from torturing him spoke more to him. At least she still had someone to partner up with next year. All she asked of him was to not tell anyone else. She was lucky that Ginny and Luna also hadn't overheard as they were unconscious at the time.

She went to the feast but didn't hear much of the speech, which she was quite alright with. Since she was so young when You-Know-Who fell the first time, she didn't have any memories of what life was like with him looming over the wizarding world. It was as if a shift had happened within the castle. Corinna didn't quite know it yet, but things were going to get very, very different around there.

The journey back to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters started off with an interesting one. According to Harry, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle tried to ambush him in front of the compartment that Terry and his friends were sitting in. Corinna should be proud as they did not resemble much more than slugs once everyone was done throwing hexes and jinxes at them. Corinna was, indeed, quite proud of her friend.

It was quiet in their compartment. Corinna was helping Ginny with a quiz in The Quibbler when Cho walked passed with her friend, Marietta. Apparently, she still had the word 'sneak' on her face as she had it hidden. She tried not to look to pleased with herself when Harry all but admitted that nothing was going to happen with him and Cho.

When they climbed off the train, Corinna was relieved to see Dora standing there with Lupin and Moody, looking much better than she had after Bellatrix was done with her. Apparently, she was there on Order business—kind of. The three of them along with Mr. Weasley had approached Harry's aunt and uncle—who seemed to be as mugglish as they come—and gave them a not-so thinly veiled threat that if they hurt Harry or they don't hear from him often, then they will have to answer to them.

"That was awesome," Corinna said to Dora as they made their way out of King's Cross.

"Just wait until you get home," said Dora, giving Corinna a look that indicated that she was not about to have as much fun.


End file.
